2026 Reading Challenge

Terry Irving > Terry's Quotes

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  • #1
    Virginia Woolf
    “Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.”
    ― Virginia Woolf
    tags: writing
    3050 likes

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  • #2
    John D. MacDonald
    “We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody threw the girl off the bridge.”
    ― John D. MacDonald, Darker Than Amber
    tags: crime-fiction, great-opening-lines, mystery
    43 likes

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  • #3
    Oscar Wilde
    “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
    ― Oscar Wilde
    tags: imagination, life, money
    9084 likes

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  • #4
    Iain M. Banks
    “What's one more meaningless act of violence on that zoo of a planet?
    It would be appropriate.
    When in Rome; burn it.”
    ― Iain M. Banks, The State of the Art
    37 likes

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  • #5
    Rudyard Kipling
    “I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterwards.”
    ― Rudyard Kipling, Under The Deodars
    tags: humor, justification, mistakes, pretexts
    699 likes

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  • #6
    Dorothy Parker
    “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”
    ― Dorothy Parker
    tags: god, humor, money
    3322 likes

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  • #7
    Olen Steinhauer
    “When he woke his conviction of failure was somehow less inevitable.”
    ― Olen Steinhauer, The Bridge of Sighs
    7 likes

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  • #8
    Charles Stross
    “Gene police! You! Out of the pool, now!”
    ― Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives
    tags: humor
    86 likes

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  • #9
    Charles Stross
    “Idiots emit bogons, causing machinery to malfunction in their presence. System administrators absorb bogons, letting machinery work again.”
    ― Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives
    tags: bogons, computers, hacker-folklore, humour, idiots, it
    72 likes

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  • #10
    Rudyard Kipling
    “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
    ― Rudyard Kipling
    tags: words
    5548 likes

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  • #11
    Rudyard Kipling
    “A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition”
    ― Rudyard Kipling
    tags: kipling
    286 likes

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  • #12
    Rudyard Kipling
    “This is a brief life, but in its brevity it offers us some splendid moments, some meaningful adventures.”
    ― Rudyard Kipling, Kim
    145 likes

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  • #13
    Rudyard Kipling
    “If any Question why We Died Tell them because our Father's Lied.”
    ― Rudyard Kipling
    24 likes

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  • #14
    Rudyard Kipling
    “For Kim did nothing with an immense success.”
    ― Rudyard Kipling, Kim
    tags: idleness, success
    21 likes

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  • #15
    Alfred Bester
    “Gully Foyle is my name
    And Terra is my nation.
    Deep space is my dwelling place,
    The stars my destination.”
    ― Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
    120 likes

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  • #16
    “There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.”
    ― Pierre Dos Utt, Tanstaafl: A Plan for a New Economic World Order
    tags: misattributed-milton-friedman, misattributed-robert-a-heinlein, tanstaafl, tanstafl
    558 likes

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  • #17
    H.L. Mencken
    “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
    ― H.L. Mencken, Prejudices First Series
    tags: diplomacy, love, outrage
    776 likes

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  • #18
    H.L. Mencken
    “A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”
    ― H.L. Mencken
    tags: politics
    249 likes

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  • #19
    Lee Child
    “I'm not afraid of death. Death's afraid of me.”
    ― Lee Child, 61 Hours
    77 likes

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  • #20
    Allen Ginsberg
    “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night.”
    ― Allen Ginsberg, Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems
    900 likes

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  • #21
    Allen Ginsberg
    “I don't think there is any truth. There are only points of view. ”
    ― Allen Ginsberg
    2282 likes

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  • #22
    Allen Ginsberg
    “Whoever controls the media, the
    images, controls the culture.”
    ― Allen Ginsberg
    tags: influence, public-opinion
    384 likes

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  • #23
    Ian Fleming
    “Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: 'Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action'.”
    ― Ian Fleming, Goldfinger
    tags: james-bond
    214 likes

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  • #24
    Joseph Stalin
    “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
    ― Joseph Stalin
    tags: death, humanity, life, media, statistics, tragedy
    757 likes

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  • #25
    Joseph Stalin
    “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”
    ― Joseph Stalin
    tags: vote
    395 likes

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  • #26
    Winston S. Churchill
    “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
    ― Winston S. Churchill
    tags: bravery, courage, failure, inspirational, success
    23477 likes

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  • #27
    Winston S. Churchill
    “You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
    ― Winston Churchill
    tags: attributed-no-source, convictions, criticism
    7790 likes

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  • #28
    Winston S. Churchill
    “If you are going through hell, keep going.”
    ― Winston S. Churchill
    tags: hell, perseverance
    6294 likes

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  • #29
    Marcus Tullius Cicero
    “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
    ― Marcus Tullius Cicero
    tags: attributed-no-source, books, simile, soul
    135505 likes

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  • #30
    Frank Zappa
    “So many books, so little time.”
    ― Frank Zappa
    tags: books, humor
    151402 likes



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Tags From Terry’s Quotes

writing
crime-fiction
great-opening-lines
mystery
imagination
life
money
humor
justification
mistakes
pretexts
god
bogons
computers
hacker-folklore
humour
idiots
it
words
kipling
idleness
success
misattributed-milton-friedman
misattributed-robert-a-heinlein
tanstaafl
tanstafl
diplomacy
love
outrage
politics
influence
public-opinion
james-bond
death
humanity
media
statistics
tragedy
vote
bravery
courage
failure
inspirational
attributed-no-source
convictions
criticism
hell
perseverance
books
simile
soul