Trisha Swed > Trisha's Quotes

“Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”
― Elie Wiesel, Night

“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
― Elie Wiesel, Night

“I am not so naïve as to believe that this slim volume will change the course of history or shake the conscience of the world. Books no longer have the power they once did. Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.”
― Elie Wiesel, Night

“They are committing the greatest indignity human beings can inflict on one another: telling people who have suffered excruciating pain and loss that their pain and loss were illusions. (v)”
― Elie Wiesel, Night

“We are all brothers and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive. (pg. 39)”
― Elie Wiesel, Night

“Look at Jewish history. Unrelieved lamenting would be intolerable. So for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast-beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one.”
― Mel Brooks

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Everything you can imagine is real.”
― Pablo Picasso

“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one.”
― John Lennon

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Always do what you are afraid to do.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“May you live every day of your life.”
― Jonathan Swift

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”
― Lewis Carroll

“[...]the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“It's kind of fun to do the impossible.”
― Walt Disney

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.”
― Lloyd Alexander

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.”
― Lance Armstrong Sally Jenkins, Every Second Counts

“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“The thing about growing up with Fred and George," said Ginny thoughtfully, "is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve.”
― J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?”
― Buddha Siddhartha Guatama Shakyamuni

“Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.”
― Mary Schmich