Quotes by American Authors - Page 696

The book that simply demands to be read, for no good reason, is asking us to change our lives by putting aside what we usually think of as good reasons. It's asking us to stop calculating. It's asking us to do something for the plain old delight and interest of it, not because we can justify its place on the mental spreadsheet or accounting ledger (like the one Benjamin Franklin kept) by which we tote up the value of our actions.
Alan Jacobs
Life is a gift and it is what you make it. Yet, it does have many twist and turns, many lows as well as high moments. Keep the fire of hope alive, even in the darkest of time.
Eveth N Colley
All art involves conscious discipline. If one is going to paint, do sculpture, design a building or write a book, it will involve discipline in time and energy — or there would never be any production at all to be seen, felt or enjoyed by ourselves or others. To develop ‘Hidden Art’ will also, of course, take time and energy – and the balance of the use of time is a constant individual problem for all of us: what to do, and what to leave undone. One is always having to neglect one thing in order to give precedence to something else. The question is one of priorities” (p. 32).
Edith Schaeffer
The word "yoga" literally means "uniting", because when you're doing it you are uniting your mind and your body. You can tell this almost immediately because your mind will be thinking, "Ouch, that hurts," and your body will say, "I know." And your mind will think, "You have to get out of this position." And your body will say, "I agree with you, but I can't right now. I think I'm stuck.
Ellen DeGeneres
It was a different life out here, but make no mistake: Lazlo was every bit the dreamer he had always been, if not more. He might have left his books, but he carried all his stories with him.
Laini Taylor
No, when you love someone you spend hours and hours with them, and even the mightiest forces in the netherworld could not say whether the hours you spend increase your love or if you simply spend more hours with someone as your love increases.
Daniel Handler
Upstairs, in the cupboard, he had a box of things he had saved as a boy and a young man. He hadn't looked into it in twenty years or more. Nothing fancy or valuable, but things that had meant something to him at one time. He found it, and found the key, and carried it downstairs without opening it.
Jane Smiley
When we’re all living in the space of the inner child, loving, honoring, respecting, and embracing its desires, we are at peace.
Kim Ha Campbell
Look son, the Human Pig.(shocked)Mother, y-you're inhuman!(deadpan)Another animal could do this?
Larry Gonick
The true optimist not only expects the best to happen, but goes to work to make the best happen. The true optimist not only looks upon the bright side, but trains every force that is in him to produce more and more brightness in his life….
Christian D. Larson
Music written by teams makes the authorship of a piece indistinct. Could it be that when hearing a song written by a team, a listener can sense that they aren't hearing an expression of a solitary individual's pain or joy, but that of a virtual conjoined person? Can we tell that an individual singer might actually represent a collective, that he might have multiple identities? Does that make the sentiments expressed more poetically universal? Dan eliminating some portion of the authorial voice make a piece of music more accessible and the singer more empathetic?
David Byrne
I was Ashallayn’darkmyr Tallyn, son of Mab, former prince of the Unseelie Court, and I was not afraid of a witch on a broom.
Julie Kagawa
Learn from your past, use the possibilities of the present moment, and let the future open the doors of opportunity.
Debasish Mridha
Once us feel loved by God, us do the best us can to please him with what us like.
Alice Walker
A strong confident person can rule the room with knowledge, personal style, attitude and great posture.
Cindy Ann Peterson
When you feel good you want to go out into the big wide world and make a positive difference. You feel love when you feel good and you want to give that love to everyone you meet. As you go along, you find that most others want what you have and they are usually very willing students, wanting to learn what you already learned so long ago.
Kate McGahan
He's a reminder of what I want to feel everyday, whether it's with him or on my own. He's taught me that who I am when I'm with him feels too good to sacrifice for the approval of everyone else. The way I dress, the guys I talk to, the games I play... it's all plastic, and when I'm with him, I'm gold.
Penelope Douglas
You don't believe in miracles.""Sure I do. I just haven't seen any lately.
Allison Brennan
She lived in fear of ifonic endings. (91)
Anne Lamott
There's a lot more to ridin' a horse than just sittin' in the saddle and lettin' yer feet hang down.
Texas Bix Bender
If I have refused to risk, I have in the self-same decision refused to love. And if indeed I have refused to love, tragically I have refused to live. And when will I realize that that in and of itself is an unacceptable risk.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination.
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Deception is mostly a game we play with ourselves.
Terry Brooks
Self-reliance is an America virtue but not a biblical value. Solomon wrote, "The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice." (Proverbs 12:15) The word 'listen' carries with it the meaning of seeking out as well as receiving advice. A lot of pain can be prevented if leaders would just check in with their coach before a making a big decision.
Gary Rohrmayer
Sadly, the signals that allow men and women to find the partners who most please them are scrambled by the sexual insecurity initiated by beauty thinking. A woman who is self-conscious can't relax to let her sensuality come into play. If she is hungry she will be tense. If she is "done up" she will be on the alert for her reflection in his eyes. If she is ashamed of her body, its movement will be stilled. If she does not feel entitled to claim attention, she will not demand that airspace to shine in. If his field of vision has been boxed in by "beauty"--a box continually shrinking--he simply will not see her, his real love, standing right before him.
Naomi Wolf
Serving my country was a life-changing experience for me. It was during those years that I realized the importance of commitment, dedication, honor, and discipline. I have never laughed so much; nor have I ever prayed so much. I made life-long friends. The leaders and heroes I served with helped shape me into the man I am today. I feel honored to have been a part of such a great tradition and grateful to others who have walked the same path. Thank you!
Steve Maraboli
Whenever one of us introduced an old favorite, we savored the other's first delight like a shared meal eaten with a newly acquired gusto, as if we'd never truly tasted it before.
Pamela Paul
Since you can't touch me, you made something that could, didn't you?" I said."Yes."My world slowed and I closed my eyes. "I am going yo give you my heart noe," I whispered. "Please don't break it again.
Jessica Verday
To be a success, plant the seeds of dreams. Then take care of those plants.
Debasish Mridha
Really listening and suspending one's own judgment is necessary in order to understand other people on their own terms. As we have noted this is a process that requires trust and builds trust.
Mary Field Belenky
I'd rather be a failure in something that I love than a success in something that I hate.
George Burns
Watching the towers fall in New York, with civilians incinerated on the planes and in the buildings, I felt something that I couldn’t analyze at first and didn't fully grasp (partly because I was far from my family in Washington, who had a very grueling day) until the day itself was nearly over. I am only slightly embarrassed to tell you that this was a feeling of exhilaration. Here we are then, I was thinking, in a war to the finish between everything I love and everything I hate. Fine. We will win and they will lose. A pity that we let them pick the time and place of the challenge, but we can and we will make up for that.
Christopher Hitchens
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Muriel Strode
I knew in that moment, I would never love anyone in my life the way I loved Evan Mathews.
Rebecca Donovan
The young man pities his elders, fearing the day he, too, will join their ranks. The elderly man pities the younger generation, well-knowing the trials and tribulations that lie ahead of them.
Lynda I Fisher
One mark of a good officer, he remembered, was the ability to make quick decisions. If they happen to be right, so much the better
Larry Niven
It’s always been you, Paige. I’ve waited my whole life for you. You’re the air I breathe, my heart and soul. Without you, I’m in hell.
Rebekkah Ford
Pray as if all things depend on God, and work as if all things depend on you.
Christina Dodd
He had insinuated himself into Nina's life in a gentle, measured way, through small gifts and intelligent, respectful notes. His attention was never overbearing, nor disturbingly selfless, but wise and reserved.
Daphne Kalotay
Sprawled out on the front lawn/ looking up at an ordinary sky/ it could fall on me and some how be/ the day I didn't die.
Bart Yates
The dead are mute, but the living still have voice with which to protest their innocence. Often their objections are noisy and pious, impossible to refute since the person who could condemn them has been silenced forever.
Sue Grafton
He wanted to take his love back from her so badly. The old techniques didn’t work anymore. In fact, they’d never worked. How do you stop loving someone? It was one of the world’s more brutal mysteries. The more you tried, the less it worked.
Ann Brashares
It was a train full of strangers, and they were all the same.
Cherie Priest
If you are tempted to revealA tale to you someone has toldAbout another, make it pass,Before you speak, three gates of gold;These narrow gates. First, "Is it true?"Then, "Is it needful?" In your mindGive truthful answer. And the nextIs last and narrowest, "Is it kind?"And if to reach your lips at lastIt passes through these gateways three,Then you may tell the tale, nor fearWhat the result of speech may be.
Beth Day
The worst moments are when my entire family is in the same room. With the people I should love the most surrounding me, I feel the most alone.
Katie McGarry
When a man I like touches my arm or my hair, I want to know if he'll touch the center of me, and whatever I learned in school--I went to school for a long time--I seem to believe that my center can be reached best with the tip of a penis....
Alice Mattison
Your number one task here is forgiving yourself and the people who mistreat you. You must learn to do this if you want to experience real happiness and peace in this life. You must do this if you want to feel accepted, valued and safe. The only way to feel innocent and worthy – is to give it to other people. That is just how it works.
Kimberly Giles
It is only when you open your veins and bleed onto the page a little that you establish contact with your reader. If you do not believe in the characters or the story you are doing at that moment with all your mind, strength, and will, if you don't feel joy and excitement while writing it, then you're wasting good white paper, even if it sells, because there are other ways in which a writer can bring in the rent money besides writing bad or phony stories.
Paul Gallico
Disparate from animals, human beings are constantly interpreting who we are. The mental rhythm of the human mind is a stream of thought that is constantly in motion. The development of conscious awareness is a lifetime process of interpreting the external world by employing the tools of observation, memory, and imagination; supplemented by rational thoughts, meditative reflections, intuition, and freelance conjure. Every day we can consciously work to alter our being or remain mentally stagnant.
Kilroy J. Oldster
We all didn't come into to the world at the same time so it makes sense that we don't leave it at the same time.
Lurlene McDaniel
Dating is like pushing your tray along in a cafeteria. Nothing looks good, but you know you have to pick something by the time you reach the cashier.
Caprice Crane
You must have come from very far down," Alice says to the fish, "to have your own lantern.
Ramona Ausubel
Lippmann was very good at staying young, at not aging and becoming a prisoner of his past experiences.
David Halberstam
Before she closed the door, she hit me with this one: "I feel like it's November first," she said, "and I'm that discarded jack-o'-lantern whose heart and guts are splattered all over the boulevard of broken promises.""And a good night to you, too," I said.
Rick Detorie
Give me a few minutes.”“You have time.” He sat in the grass.“Are you just going to sit there and watch me?”“Yes. Watching pretty peasant girls is what we poor little rich boys do best.”“Peasant?”He shrugged. “You started the name calling.
Ilona Andrews
The Bible teaches that our homes should be hospitable and that those who come in and out of our homes should sense the presence of Christ.
Billy Graham
Satan wants us to focus on the problem, not the Provider. He constantly points to what seems to be rather than to what God has promised to do. If we stop spending time with the Lord in prayer, the concerns of the physical world snatch our attention and dominate us, while the spiritual senses deaden and the promises fade.I am absolutely convinced that the number one reason that Christians today don't pray more is because we do not grasp the connection between prayer and the promises of God. We are trying as individuals and churches to pray 'because we're supposed to' without a living faith in the promises of God concerning prayer. No faith life of any significance can be maintained by this 'ought-to' approach. There must be faith in God at the bottom....When real faith in God arises, a certainty comes that when we call, he will answer...that when we ask, we will receive...that when we knock, the door will be opened...
Jim Cymbala
My phone isn't "smart" because of its features. I make it smart by maximizing the phone's feature-set toward better personal efficiency.
Larry Bailin
The wall sawyer did not ask the little queen what she did. This was because in the little queen’s kingdom, people only volunteered their doings if they wanted to, and they never asked others their doings. It was considered impolite. Asking what one did was like asking who they were, and that was too simple a question for a very complex answer.
Meia Geddes
I believe a family can be like that sports team. A successful family wins as a team. But if its members are intent upon winning their own individual battles with one another, the team loses. A winning solution is to work out the differences and, when it’s over, let it be over. Then they can get back in the game as a team.
Steve Goodier