Vanessa > Vanessa's Quotes

“One way to pick a future is to believe it’s inevitable.”
― Richard Bach, One

“No matter what I preach or what we claim to believe in our heads, the future will depend upon our times of prayer.”
― Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire

“I still feel haunted,' she said. 'I thought it would go away. I thought if I faced it, it would all go away.'

'It doesn't go away. Ever. But you get better at it.'

'At what?'

'At being haunted,' Avasarala said.”
― James S.A. Corey, Caliban’s War

“I know something now that I didn't before-the worst stories are the ones you've heard your whole life. Those are the real nightmares.”
― Stephen King, Everything's Eventual

“It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”
― John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

“Jesus called fishermen, not graduates of rabbinical schools. The main requirement was to be natural and sincere.”
― Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire

“It had been a failure, but it was a failure he understood, and that made it a victory.”
― James S.A. Corey, Caliban's War

“Have you ever felt so at one with the world, with the universe, with everything that is, that you were overcome with love? That is reality. That is the truth. What we make of it is up to us, as the painting of the sunrise is up to the artist. In our world humanity has strayed from that love. It lives hatred and power struggles and manipulations of the earth itself for its own narrow reasons. Continue and no one will see the sunrise. The sunrise will always exist, of course, but people on earth will know nothing of it and finally even stories of its beauty will fade from our knowing.”
― Richard Bach, One

“No rest for the wicked, no peace for the good.”
― James S.A. Corey, Abaddon's Gate

“If we would give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.”
― Dorothy Canfield Fisher

“He is rather a peculiar man." Again he hesitated, and then said gently: "I think he would not take advantage of your acceptance, nor expect you to show gratitude. He has the merit—if it is one—of saying exactly what he means. He has rooms he does not value, and he thinks you would value them. He no more thought of putting you under an obligation than he thought of being polite. It is so difficult—at least, I find it difficult—to understand people who speak the truth.”
― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View

“And that's when she put her book down. And looked at me. And said it: "Life isn't fair, Bill. we tell our children that it is, but it's a terrible thing to do. It's not only a lie, it's a cruel lie. Life is not fair, and it never has been, and it's never going to be.”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride

“Now what happens?" asked the man in black.
"We face each other as God intended," Fezzik said. "No tricks, no weapons, skill against skill alone."
"You mean you'll put down your rock and I'll put down my sword and we'll try to kill each other like civilized people, is that it?”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”
― John Steinbeck

“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.”
― John Steinbeck

“When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you've got two new people.”
― John Steinbeck

“Politeness doesn’t require actual humanity. It’s just cultural ritual...
Politeness is fancy curtains in your front window. Kindness is the home-cooked meal on your dinner table.”
― Karen Kilgariff, Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide

“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Find the one thing you love and shut up about it.”
― Karen Kilgariff

“I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen.”
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

“Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”
― John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

“All great and precious things are lonely.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

“All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.”
― John Steinbeck

“Try to understand men. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love.”
― John Steinbeck

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

“I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found.”
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

“To be alive at all is to have scars. ”
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

“As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.”
― John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

“No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.”
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent