Conception Quotes

“Material and technical changes are mostly quite visible. But less visible are the changes in the mind of the people, their way of thinking, their conception of the world and the quality of their fears. ("Horizon and Vision" )”
― Erik Pevernagie

“I was conceived because it would be good for my House to have an heir and because my parents' genes ticked the right set of boxes. You were probably conceived because your parents loved each other."

"According to our mother," Bern said, "he was conceived because she was too wasted to remember a rubber."

Mad Rogan stopped chewing.

"I was conceived because my mother skipped bail. Her boyfriend at the time threatened to call the cops on her so she had to do something to keep him from doing it," Bern said helpfully.

Awesome. Just the right kind of information to share.

"Aunt Giselea isn't the best mother," I said. "There's one in every family.”
― Ilona Andrews, Burn for Me

“Of my conception I know only what you know of yours. It occurred in darkness and I was unconsenting... By some bleak alchemy what had been mere unbeing becomes death when life is mingled with it.”
― Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping

“All children are atheists, they have no idea of God.”
― Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach, System of Nature

“The human population would probably be way less than a thousand, if ejaculation were not usually accompanied by an orgasm.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“We're just ruined by sex, women---our bodies, our psyches. We're sexually assaulted every five minutes. We're infected with everything. Traumatized by conceiving, by not conceiving. But let's keep at it? Like, you've been in a maiming car accident and then you're supposed to want to get back in the car? I mean, what?”
― Catherine Newman, Sandwich

“The only kind of universe that I can even begin to conceive is an inconceivable one.”
― Ilyas Kassam

“When he was in college, a famous poet made a useful distinction for him. He had drunk enough in the poet's company to be compelled to describe to him a poem he was thinking of. It would be a monologue of sorts, the self-contemplation of a student on a summer afternoon who is reading Euphues. The poem itself would be a subtle series of euphuisms, translating the heat, the day, the student's concerns, into symmetrical posies; translating even his contempt and boredom with that famously foolish book into a euphuism.

The poet nodded his big head in a sympathetic, rhythmic way as this was explained to him, then told him that there are two kinds of poems. There is the kind you write; there is the kind you talk about in bars. Both kinds have value and both are poems; but it's fatal to confuse them.

In the Seventh Saint, many years later, it had struck him that the difference between himself and Shakespeare wasn't talent - not especially - but nerve. The capacity not to be frightened by his largest and most potent conceptions, to simply (simply!) sit down and execute them. The dreadful lassitude he felt when something really large and multifarious came suddenly clear to him, something Lear-sized yet sonnet-precise. If only they didn't rush on him whole, all at once, massive and perfect, leaving him frightened and nerveless at the prospect of articulating them word by scene by page. He would try to believe they were of the kind told in bars, not the kind to be written, though there was no way to be sure of this except to attempt the writing; he would raise a finger (the novelist in the bar mirror raising the obverse finger) and push forward his change. Wailing like a neglected ghost, the vast notion would beat its wings into the void.

Sometimes it would pursue him for days and years as he fled desperately. Sometimes he would turn to face it, and do battle. Once, twice, he had been victorious, objectively at least. Out of an immense concatenation of feeling, thought, word, transcendent meaning had come his first novel, a slim, pageant of a book, tombstone for his slain conception. A publisher had taken it, gingerly; had slipped it quietly into the deep pool of spring releases, where it sank without a ripple, and where he supposes it lies still, its calm Bodoni gone long since green. A second, just as slim but more lurid, nightmarish even, about imaginary murders in an imaginary exotic locale, had been sold for a movie, though the movie had never been made. He felt guilt for the producer's failure (which perhaps the producer didn't feel), having known the book could not be filmed; he had made a large sum, enough to finance years of this kind of thing, on a book whose first printing was largely returned.”
― John Crowley, Novelty: Four Stories

“The ingenerating of a principle of grace in the soul seems in Scripture to be compared to the conceiving of Christ in the womb... And the conception of Christ in the womb of the blessed virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost, seems to be a designed resemblance of the conception of Christ in the soul of a believer by the power of the same Holy Ghost.”
― Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections

“Holy Mother we do believe,
That without sin Thou didst conceive;
May we now in Thee believing,
Also sin without conceiving.”
― A. P. Herbert

“Opportunities can become obstacles, same way obstacles can become opportunities; it all depends on how they are being interpreted by the mind of a person.”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders' Watchwords

“The desire to procreate, in some, is so strong that it creates a sort of tunnel vision in the afflicted. One can’t see beyond trying to make a baby, and they never stop to think about what it will really be like once said baby has in fact, arrived.”
― Karen Fowler, Reflections on Motherhood

“No individual existence can be traced further than the moment of conception, which determined that what was to be born would be this person and no other. The person may change from baby to child, and from boy to man, but through all these changes he will remain this person and cannot be another, because all possibilities to the contrary that may have existed before the moment of conception ended forever with the moment of conception.”
― Nick Joaquín, Culture and History

“The banana flavour of his accidental conception, and the banana theme of his accidental death, now all seemed to conspire against him and rather suggest the universe, Mr Fate or whoever did have some sort of master plan after all. Despite all his earlier conjecturing, maybe the universe, Mr Fate or whoever was laughing its fat and meddling head at him. The outlandish evidence did seem to speak for itself, truly suggesting a mocking narrative devised by some mischievous author because quite simply a banana condom had brought Midnight into the world and a banana skin had seen him out. Putting those two seeming truths together, Midnight was once again forced to ask such confused and searching questions like:

What is this place, where am I heading? And what’s the deal with all the ruddy bananas?”
― Tom Conrad

“To hone your craft is to honor creation. It doesn’t matter if you become the best in your field. By practicing to improve, you are fulfilling your ultimate purpose on this planet.”
― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

“She laughed. 'Ahh, Donna, luv, I've missed you.' She leaned forward. 'And you've no need to race anywhere; you've already won the biggest of all races--'

'What race? Aside from that screenplay competition--which is the most amazing thing ever--I've never won a thing in my life.'

'The night your father spent himself inside your mother he unleashed a billion sperm cells inside of her.'

'Oh, Jeezes, Elly--'

'That's the population of India, luv--all swimming for that one egg. And you outswam them all. There, what does that tell you--you won there, didn't you?'

'I--never quite thought of it that way.”
― Donna Morrissey, Pluck: A memoir of a Newfoundland childhood and the raucous, terrible, amazing journey to becoming a novelist

“If you feel unable to hit a note or faithfully paint an image, it’s helpful to remember that the challenge is not that you can’t do it, but that you haven’t done it yet. Avoid thinking in impossibilities. If there’s a skill or piece of knowledge you need for a particular project, you can do the homework and work toward it over time. You can train for anything.”
― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

“We are not our ideals, we are our manifestations.”
― Gabriel Dibble

“If it has been a tendency of at least Western belief systems to value what is immortal – God, Truth, the Soul – Darwin and Freud encourage us to describe what this craving for continuities might be a solution to. And they press us to think of our lives as more miraculous than our deaths; our death is inevitable, but our conception is not.”
― Adam Phillips, Darwin's Worms: On Life Stories and Death Stories

“Conception of an idea is vital. Rightly said, "Products are made in the factory, but brands are built in the minds of the customer.” The consumer doesn’t just buy what we make—they buy why we make it.”
― Priyavrat Thareja

“Resisting the urge to procreate is to stand against one of the most formidable forces on this planet.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding

“A profound thank you on behalf of all those who might have been your unborn descendants—grateful for being spared from potential suffering.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding

“Those who consciously choose not to create new sentient life are the ones who have truly decoded the code of creation.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding

“Our genetic code exploits our bodies and minds as disposable vessels in its blind pursuit of replication.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding

“Even those suffering poverty, trauma, illness, or genetic impairment still feel compelled to reproduce—not by choice, but by biology.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding

“Humans possess the rare ability to defy their DNA, yet only a few ever reach that level of awareness.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding

“Those who choose child-freedom contribute profoundly to society, to non-human animals, and to the planet itself.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding

“Caring for beings who already exist is far nobler than gambling with the lives of those not yet born.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding

“Teaching and mentoring children is a nobler contribution to humanity than creating more of it.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding

“Choosing compassion over biology deserves recognition, even celebration.”
― Danny Shine, Thank You for Not Breeding