Shawn > Shawn's Quotes

“He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it, namely, that, in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.”
― Mark Twain

“I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.”
― Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

“This is fucking Washington! Who the hell has a below ground swimming pool? It rained 256 days of the year, for Pete's sake! On the off chance I found the blasted owners of it, I was going to put a bullet in their heads right then.”
― Eloise J. Knapp, The Undead Situation

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“You are where you are and what you are because of yourself, nothing else. Nature is neutral. Nature doesn't care. If you do what other successful people do, you will enjoy the same results and rewards that they do. And if you don't, you won't.”
― Brian Tracy, Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals

“The choice isn't between success and failure; it's between choosing risk and striving for greatness, or risking nothing and being certain of mediocrity.”
― Keith farrazzi

“Identify the people in your industries who always seem to be out in front, and use all the relationship skills you've acquired to connect with them. Take them to lunch. Read their newsletters. In fact, read everything you can. Online, there are hundreds of individuals distilling information, analyzing it, and making prognos-tications. These armchair analysts are the eyes and ears of innovation. Now get online and read, read, read. Subscribe to magazines, buy books, and talk to the smartest people you can find. Eventually, all this knowledge will build on itself, and you'll start making connections others aren't.”
― Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

“For some days I haunted the spot where these scenes had taken place, sometimes wishing to see you, sometimes resolved to quit the world and its miseries forever. At length I wandered towards these mountains, and have ranged through their immense recesses, consumed by a burning passion which you alone can gratify. We may not part until you have promised to comply with my requisition. I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be his world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“The reality distortion field was a confounding mélange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand,”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

“Never laugh at live dragons.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

“It was not just that he had terrible style: he also gave the impression that he was deliberately desecrating the very idea of wearing clothes.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“I'm tired of living unable to love anyone. I don't have a single friend - not one. And, worst of all, I can't even love myself. Why is that? Why can't I love myself? It's because I can't love anyone else. A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else. Do you understand what I am saying? A person who is incapable of loving another cannot properly love himself.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. ”
― Dale Carnegie

“Optimists are happier in life for a reason.”
― Brendon Burchard, The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive

“Heat radiated off Henry's face. Salty snot ran down his upper lip. A majestic fart propelled him to the top of Section 12, just at the springing of the stadium's curve. He slapped the sign as if high-fiving a teamate. It gave back a game shudder. He was crusing now, darkness be damned, stripping off his sweatshirt and his long underwear top without breaking stride.”
― Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding

“I don't want to prove anything; I merely want to live, to do no one harm but myself. I have the right to do that, haven't I?”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Don’t just teach your children to read…
Teach them to question what they read.
Teach them to question everything.”
― George Carlin

“Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.”
― Albert Camus, Notebooks 1935-1942

“Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop!
The great big greedy nincompoop!”
― Roald Dahl

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“All human wisdom is contained in these two words--"Wait and Hope.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“Kids, fiction is the truth inside the lie, and the truth of this fiction is simple enough: the magic exists.”
― Stephen King

“All The Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
Layin' In The Sun,
Talkin' 'Bout The Things
They Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda Done...
But All Those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
All Ran Away And Hid
From One Little Did.”
― Shel Silverstein

“Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“You can only kill disappointment with a new try.”
― Kim Stanley Robinson, Shaman

“no one else can live your life for you.”
― Kim Stanley Robinson, Shaman

“You learned this,” Kabsal said, lifting up her drawing of Jasnah, “from a book.”
“Er…yes?”
He looked back at the picture. “I need to read more.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings