Aman Mittal > Aman's Quotes

“In his forty-third year William Stoner learned what others, much younger, had learned before him: that the person one loves at first is not the person one loves at last, and that love is not an end but a process through which one person attempts to know another.
They were both very shy, and they knew each other slowly, tentatively; they came close and drew apart, they touched and withdrew, neither wishing to impose upon the other more than might be welcomed. Day by day the layers of reserve that protected them dropped away, so that at last they were like many who are extraordinarily shy, each open to the other, unprotected, perfectly and unselfconsciously at ease.
Nearly every afternoon, when his classes were over, he came to her apartment. They made love, and talked, and made love again, like children who did not think of tiring at their play. The spring days lengthened, and they looked forward to the summer.”
― John Williams, Stoner

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“We improve ourselves by victory over our self. There must be contests, and you must win.”
― Edward Gibbon

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain

“I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.”
― Woody Allen

“It was the laughter of birthdays, of money found in an old pocket.”
― Ian Rankin, Knots and Crosses

“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering... these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love... these are what we stay alive for.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

“The whole key to life is discovering things for yourself. What you do with that discovery is what lies on the other side of that door.”
― David Whitaker, Doctor Who and the Daleks

“Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it 'creative observation.' Creative viewing.”
― William S. Burroughs, Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts

“There is peace even in the storm”
― Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”
― Tom Schulman, Dead Poets Society

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
― George Eliot

“Rebus drank his coffee and felt his head spin. He was feeling like the detective in a cheap thriller, and wished that he could turn to the last page and stop all his confusion, all the death and the madness and the spinning in his ears.”
― Ian Rankin

“The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too”
― Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

“Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough.”
― Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

“When you read, don't just consider what the author thinks, consider what you think”
― Tom Schulman, Dead Poets Society: The Screenplay

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

“Witches never existed, except in people’s minds. All there was in the olden days was women and some men who believed in herbal cures and in folklore and in the wish to fly. Witches? We’re all witches in one way or another. Witches was the invention of mankind, son. We’re all witches beneath the skin.”
― Ian Rankin, The Flood

“Change might not be fast and it isn't always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”
― Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

“but only in their dreams can men be truly free. 'twas always thus and always thus will be.”
― N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society

“Sometimes I wonder how normal normal people are, and I wonder that most in the grocery store.”
― Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark

“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.”
― Albert Camus

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it.”
― Stefan Zweig, Beware of Pity

“the most offensive is not their lying—one can always forgive lying—lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth—what is offensive is that they lie and worship their own lying…”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

“...the sea's only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong. Now, I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions, facing blind, deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your own hands and your own head...”
― Primo Levi