Anna > Anna's Quotes

“For the first time he really felt that it was no use trying to save those who fundamentally would rather not be saved.”
― Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim

“When a woman says, ‘I have nothing to wear!’, what she really means is, ‘There’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today.”
― Caitlin Moran, How to Be a Woman

“I know what it's like to be afraid of your own mind.”
― Spencer Reid

“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.”
― Sir Walter Scott

“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.”
― W.E.B. DuBois

“One can't fight with oneself, for this battle has only one loser.”
― Mario Vargas Llosa, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter

“Losers, like autodidacts, always know much more than winners. If you want to win, you need to know just one thing and not to waste your time on anything else: the pleasures of erudition are reserved for losers. The more a person knows, the more things have gone wrong.”
― Umberto Eco, Numero Zero: An Acclaimed Political Thriller Unraveling Mussolini's Conspiracy, Media Hoaxes, and Italian History

“Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
― Sarah Williams, Twilight Hours: A Legacy of Verse

“Remember that misuse of language can lead to miscommunication, and that miscommunication leads to everything that has ever happened in the whole of the world.”
― Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale

“Witches are naturally nosy,” said Miss Tick, standing up. “Well, I must go. I hope we shall meet again. I will give you some free advice, though.”
“Will it cost me anything?”
“What? I just said it was free!” said Miss Tick.
“Yes, but my father said that free advice often turns out to be expensive,” said Tiffany.
Miss Tick sniffed. “You could say this advice is priceless,” she said, “Are you listening?”
“Yes,” said Tiffany.
“Good. Now...if you trust in yourself...”
“Yes?”
“...and believe in your dreams...”
“Yes?”
“...and follow your star...” Miss Tick went on.
“Yes?”
“...you’ll still be beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy. Goodbye.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

“The night sky is only a sort of carbon paper,
Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars
Letting in the light, peephole after peephole---
A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.

--from "Insomniac", written April 1961”
― Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems

“someone will remember us
I say
even in another time”
― Sappho

“You are, I think, an evening star,
the fairest of all the stars.”
― Sappho

“Nevertheless, he picked up a piece of smashed chair. It had splintered nicely. And the nice thing about a stake through the heart was that it also worked on non-vampires.”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

“Batman doesn't have to put up with this shit--why should we?”
― Caitlin Moran, How to Be a Woman

“Remember: If you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget.”
― Joseph Fink, Mostly Void, Partially Stars

“Shoes, men, coffins; never accept the first one you see.”
― Terry Pratchett, Thud!

“You know, they always say, “If you’re trying to meet someone, you may never find them. But it’s when you’re not looking, that’s when they find you.” I’ve always heard this in reference to government agents, but I think it applies to dating as well.”
― Joseph Fink, Mostly Void, Partially Stars

“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“People are beautiful when they do beautiful things.”
― Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale

“This led to a discussion of whether volcanoes were really the fires from Vulcan’s forge or some sort of natural phenomenon, like storms and floods. I was of the latter opinion, because Vulcan is reputed to be the greatest of smiths and I doubt he would let his fires get out of control.”
― John Maddox Roberts, Under Vesuvius

“I need a drink," she said, voice muffled by her hands. "And then I'm going to need a drink for my drink, so the first one doesn't get lonely. Fuck it, just give me the bottle and walk away.”
― Seanan McGuire, Once Broken Faith

“One can't help thinking, Daddy, what a colourless life a man is forced to lead, when one reflects that chiffon and Venetian point and hand embroidery and Irish crochet are to him mere empty words. Whereas a woman- whether she is interested in babies or microbes or husbands or poetry or servants or parallelograms or gardens or Plato or bridge- is fundamentally and always interested in clothes.”
― Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs

“It’s one of those weird truths you learn early on as police that quite a high percentage of the public have all the survival instinct of a moth in a candle factory. They run the wrong way, they refuse to move, some will run toward the danger, and others will instantly whip out their phones and take footage.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, False Value

“everyone assumes causation when they should be thinking coincidence, and correlation when they should be asking whether Twitter is really a reliable source of information.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, False Value

“Sometimes the best defense is a T.rex.”
― Jim Butcher, Peace Talks

“A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.”
― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

“Cats will amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

“Slapping a man across the face with a fish hasn’t been sexy since the fifties.”
― Jana Deleon, Lethal Bayou Beauty

“He considered himself a good man, and always did his best to avoid passing judgement on others, but deep down he had an unshakeable conviction that all rich people were deeply, deeply stupid.”
― Jonathan Sims, Thirteen Storeys