Joan > Joan's Quotes

“There is nothing in the record of the past two years when both Houses of Congress have been controlled by the Republican Party which can lead any person to believe that those promises will be fulfilled in the future. They follow the Hitler line - no matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as truth.”
― John F. Kennedy

“Memory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember.”
― Joan Didion, Blue Nights

“In theory momentos serve to bring back the moment. In fact they serve only to make clear how inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here. How inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here is something else I could never afford to see.”
― Joan Didion, Blue Nights

“Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.”
― Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

“The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have. ”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. ”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn't know a thing about life.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“Sunset is the saddest light there is.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“There's nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything precious can slip from the hinges where you've hung it so careful.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“The universe, I'd learned, was never, ever kidding. It would take whatever it wanted and it would never give it back.”
― Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

“People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd.”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

“Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog