Gene > Gene's Quotes

“I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.”
― Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game

“It is almost as if happiness is an acquired taste, like coconut cordial or ceviche, to which you can eventually become accustomed, but despair is something surprising each time you encounter it.”
― Lemony Snicket, The End

“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“Closing my eyes doesn't help. Fire burns brighter in the darkness.”
― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“Be crazy! But learn how to be crazy without being the center of attention. Be brave enough to live different.”
― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

“If God exists, and I truly don’t believe he does, he will know that there are limits to human understanding. He was the one who created this confusion in which there is poverty, injustice, greed, and loneliness. He doubtless had the best of intentions, but the results have proved disastrous; if God exists, he will be generous with those creatures who chose to leave this Earth early, and he might even apologize for having made us spend time here.”
― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

“I'll tell everyone that the children are my reason for living, when in reality my life is their reason for living.”
― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

“The happier people can be, the unhappier they are.”
― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
― Fitzgerald F. Scott, The Great Gatsby

“I'd far rather be happy than right any day.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Grim Grotto

“The world is quiet here.”
― Lemony Snicket

“As long as you keep getting born, it's all right to die sometimes”
― Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead

“Once you understand what people really want, you can't hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can't hate them, because you can always find the same desires in your own heart.”
― Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead

“It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”
― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

“I drag myself out of nightmares each morning and find there's no relief in waking.”
― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

“When a city or a town sets aside a piece of land for public relaxation, it is a sign that someone is thinking about the happiness of someone else”
― Lemony Snicket, Poison for Breakfast

“Loving someone always requires you to not love others.”
― Koushun Takami, Battle Royale

“Haven't you learned anything, not even with the approach of death? Stop thinking all the time that you're in the way, that you're bothering the person next to you. If people don't like it, they can complain. And if they don't have the courage to complain, that's their problem”
― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

“Be like the fountain that overflows, not like the cistern that merely contains.”
― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”
― Zhuangzi, The Butterfly as Companion: Meditations on the First Three Chapters of the Chuang Tzu

“The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.”
― Zhuangzi

“The sound of water says what I think.”
― Chuang Tzu

“The baby looks at things all day without winking; that is because his eyes are not focused on any particular object. He goes without knowing where he is going, and stops without knowing what he is doing. He merges himself within the surroundings and moves along with it. These are the principles of mental hygiene.”
― Chuang-Tzu

“A frog in a well cannot discuss the ocean, because he is limited by the size of his well. A summer insect cannot discuss ice, because it knows only its own season. A narrow-minded scholar cannot discuss the Tao, because he is constrained by his teachings. Now you have come out of your banks and seen the Great Ocean. You now know your own inferiority, so it is now possible to discuss great principles with you.
井蛙不可以語於海者，拘於虛也；夏蟲不可以語於冰者，篤於時也；曲士不可以語於道者，束於教也。今爾出於崖涘，觀於大海，乃知爾醜，爾將可與語大理矣。”
― Zhuangzi, The Way of Chuang Tzu

“You can't discuss the ocean with a well frog - he's limited by the space he lives in. You can't discuss ice with a summer insect - he's bound to a single season.”
― Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

“Where is that man who has forgotten words that I may have a word with him?”
― Chuang Tsu