John Kopsidas > John's Quotes

“I couldn't have thought of her more. Even vacancy was crowded with her.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

“But why, why, why can't people just say what they mean?”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
― Marilyn Monroe

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey

“It's a small world." . . . "When you put it in a cemetery it is.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

“I laughed. “You’re too young to be so … pessimistic,” I said, using the English word.
“Pessi-what?”
“Pessimistic. It means looking only at the dark side of things.”
“Pessimistic … pessimistic …” She repeated the English to herself over and over, and then she looked up at me with a fierce glare. “I’m only sixteen,” she said, “and I don’t know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If I’m pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.”
― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

“I was too pessimistic for an optimist to live with”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?”
― Hermann Hesse, Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”
― Bernard M. Baruch

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

“Take my hand. We will walk. We will only walk. We will enjoy our walk without thinking of arriving anywhere.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

“I asked you here tonight because when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“I haven’t changed my mind. That’s the point! I want to spend my life with you even though it’s totally irrational. And you have short earlobes. Socially and genetically there’s no reason for me to be attracted to you. The only logical conclusion is that I must be in love with you.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“Humans often fail to see what is close to them and obvious to others.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“Η μνήμη είναι ελαστική, ανθεκτική σα λάστιχο. Κάνει πως υποχωρεί και σβήνει,προχωρείς εύπιστος και ύστερα σου εκσφενδονίζεται βίαια και σου τσακίζει τα μούτρα.”
― Μάρω Βαμβουνάκη, H μοναξιά είναι από χώμα

“Μην ακούς όλα όσα σου κατηγορώ. Ίσως υπερβάλλω, ίσως σε αδικώ περισσότερο από όσο σ' αξίζει. Είναι που το χρειάζομαι στην αδυναμία μου να παρηγορηθώ που σε έχασα. Έτσι, δειλά, κακορίζικα και μικρόψυχα να παρηγορηθώ υποβιβάζοντάς σε για να πείθομαι κι εγώ πως δεν είναι μόνο που σ' έχασα αλλά και που γλίτωσα κιόλας.”
― Μάρω Βαμβουνάκη, H μοναξιά είναι από χώμα

“Το κρεβάτι μας άπλωνε και γινόταν το πανάκριβο «τώρα» που επιτέλους ακινητούσε της ροές του άγχους μου και με μεταμόρφωνε σε μακαριότητα. Όμως μαζί σου κρατούσε ελάχιστα.
Αμέσως μόλις χωρίζαμε το εφιαλτικό παιχνίδι, με τους δείκτες του ρολογιού μ’ έρριχνε σε ασθματικά κυνηγητά. Οι ώρες, τα λεπτά, τα δευτερόλεπτα σάρκαζαν την ψυχή μου που μακριά σου έτρεχε συνεχώς σε ανάποδα κυλιόμενη κορδέλα. Να σε προλάβει, να σε συλλάβει, να σε κατακρατήσει και να επαναλάβει μαζί σου εκείνο το θαυμαστό «τώρα» του έρωτα.
Εκείνο το εξαίσιο «τώρα» του έρωτα, το τόσο ανεκτίμητο κι ακριβοπληρωμένο μπορεί και να μη συμβαίνει μονάχα μαζί σου. Ελπίζω…
Αυτή η ελπίδα με σώζει απ’ την καταδίκη της άγριας εξάρτησης από σένα.”
― Μάρω Βαμβουνάκη, H μοναξιά είναι από χώμα

“If you work hard enough at something that doesn’t matter, you can forget for a while about the things that do.”
― Octavia E. Butler

“The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belongs to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

“I had to touch you with my hands, I had to taste you with my tongue; one can't love and do nothing.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

“I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

“Insecurity is the worst sense that lovers feel; sometimes the most humdrum desireless marriage seems better. Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

“I became aware that our love was doomed; love had turned into a love affair with a beginning and an end. I could name the very moment when it had begun, and one day I knew I should be able to name the final hour. When she left the house I couldn't settle to work. I would reconstruct what we had said to each other; I would fan myself into anger or remorse. And all the time I knew I was forcing the pace. I was pushing, pushing the only thing I loved out of my life. As long as I could make believe that love lasted I was happy; I think I was even good to live with, and so love did last. But if love had to die, I wanted it to die quickly. It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death; I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

“People who like quotes love meaningless generalizations”
― Graham Greene

“I'm tired and I'm sick to death of being without you.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

“My passion for Sarah had killed simple lust forever. Never again would I be able to enjoy a woman without love.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

“Indifference and pride look very much alike, and he probably thought I was proud.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

“Can you explain away love too?' I asked.
'Oh yes,' he said. 'The desire to possess in some, like avarice: in others the desire to surrender, to lose the sense of responsibility, the wish to be admired. Sometimes just the wish to be able to talk, to unburden yourself to someone who won't be bored. The desire to find again a father or a mother. And of course under it all the biological motive.”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair