Might Have Been Quotes - Page 2

• There is no expert on what happiness is but many on what it might have been.

  Robert Breault

  Happiness, Experts, Might

  7 Copy quote

• The point is that something I thought was perfect has been broken, and I'm having to find the beauty in what is there instead of what I thought was there. Like this shell. I can either spend all my time wishing it were perfect, trying to imagine it the way it was or might have been, or I can see how beautiful it is just like this.

  James Howe

  Beautiful, Broken, Perfect

  James Howe (1997). “The Watcher”, p.115, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• That shot might not have been as good as it might have been.

  John Motson

  Soccer, Might, Shots

  "When a royal face didn't fit" by Frank Keating, www.theguardian.com. May 20, 2004.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Oncoming death is terrible enough, but worse still is oncoming death with time to spare, time in which all the happiness that was yours and all the happiness that might have been yours becomes clear to you. You see with utter lucidity all that you are losing.

  Yann Martel

  Might, Losing, Enough

  Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.211, Canongate Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• But still my fancy wanders free
  Through that which might have been.

  Thomas Love Peacock

  Might, Fancy, Wander

  Thomas Love Peacock (1931). “The Works of Thomas Love Peacock: Poems and plays. 1931”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• And now let us love and take that which is given us, and be happy; for in the grave there is no love and no warmth, nor any touching of the lips. Nothing perchance, or perchance but bitter memories of what might have been.

  H. Rider Haggard

  Memories, Touching, Might

  H. Rider Haggard (2016). “She”, p.91, H. Rider Haggard

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't want to live the rest of my life thinking about you and dreaming of what might have been. Stay with me, Allie.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Dream, Thinking About You, Want

  15 Copy quote

• If you simply ignored the feeling, you would never know what might happen, and in many ways that was worse than finding out in the first place. Because if you were wrong, you could go forward in your life without ever looking back over your shoulder and wondering what might have been.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Regret, Feelings, Might

  11 Copy quote

• Because when she failed, I saw how she might have succeeded. Arrows that continually glanced off from Mr. Rochester's breast and fell harmless at his feet, might, I knew, if shot by a surer hand, have quivered keen in his proud heart - have called love into his stern eye, and softness into his sardonic face, or better still, without weapons a silent conquest might have been won.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Heart, Eye, Hands

  Charlotte Bronte (2014). “Jane Eyre: Englische Originalausgabe”, p.199, Edition Lempertz

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• He had been alone in the world and empty for so long. But she filled him full, and so he believed everything that had been taken out of him might have been for a purpose. To clear space for something better.

  Charles Frazier

  Taken, Space, Long

  Charles Frazier (1997). “Cold Mountain”, p.347, Atlantic Monthly Press

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• ʺWhere is it?ʺ I asked. ʺLexington, Kentucky.ʺ ʺOh for Godʹs sake,ʺ I moaned. ʺWhy not the Bahamas? Or the Corn Palace?ʺ Dimitri tried to hide a smile. It might have been at my expense, but if Iʹd lightened his mood, I was grateful. ʺIf we leave right now, we can reach him before morning.ʺ I glanced around. ʺTough choice. Leave all this for electricity and plumbing?ʺ Now Sydney grinned. ʺAnd no more marriage proposals.ʺ ʺAnd weʹll probably have to fight Strigoi,ʺ added Dimitri. I jumped to my feet. ʺHow soon can we go?ʺ

  Richelle Mead

  Morning, Grateful, Fighting

  8 Copy quote

• The hardest thing in the world is believing someone can change. It's always easier to go along with the way things are than to admit that you might have been wrong in the first place.

  Jodi Picoult

  Believe, World, Might

  Jodi Picoult (2012). “The Jodi Picoult Collection #4: Change of Heart, Handle with Care, and House Rules”, p.387, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• And it seemed hard to believe that these people who were so close to me couldn’t see how desperate I was, or if they could they didn’t care enough to do anything about it, or if they cared enough to do anything about it they didn’t believe there was anything they could do, not knowing—or not wanting to know—that their belief might have been the thing that made the difference.

  Elizabeth Wurtzel

  Believe, Differences, Knowing

  Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.84, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on earth, people died instead of me, too. It happens every day. When lightning strikes a minute after you are gone, or an airplane crashes that you might have been on. When your colleague falls ill and you do not. We think such things are random. But there is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows. Birth and death are part of a whole.

  Mitch Albom

  Fall, Airplane, Thinking

  10 Copy quote

• With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence. It was an old song, old as the breed itself--one of the first songs of the younger world in a day when songs were sad.

  Jack London

  Song, Stars, Keys

  Rudyard Kipling, Hugh Lofting, Jack London, Kenneth Grahame, Anna Sewell (2017). “Five Classic Animal Adventures: The Jungle Book, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, The Call of the Wild, The Wind in the Willows, and Black Beauty”, p.257, Open Road Media

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her. His understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have answered all her wishes. It was an union that must have been to the advantage of both: by her ease and liveliness, his mind might have been softened, his manners improved; and from his judgement, information, and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of greater importance.

  Jane Austen

  Men, Understanding, Mind

  Jane Austen (2005). “Jane Austen: 8 Books in 1”, p.175, Shoes & Ships & Sealing Wax

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Caroline Waverly: Sometimes we hurt more for what might have been than for what is.

  Nora Roberts

  Hurt, Might, Sometimes

  4 Copy quote

• Was it - was she making a real prediction?' Dumbledore looked mildly impressed. 'Do you know, Harry, I think she might have been,' he said thoughtfully. 'Who'd have thought it? That brings her total of real predictions up to two. I should offer her a pay raise.

  J. K. Rowling

  Real, Thinking, Two

  4 Copy quote

• In really bad times, the hungriest would gather at his door at nightfall, vying for the chance to earn a few coins to feed their families by selling their bodies. Had I been older when my father died, I might have been among them. Instead I learned to hunt.

  Suzanne Collins

  Father, Doors, Coins

  Suzanne Collins (2011). “The Hunger Games Trilogy”, p.635, Scholastic Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I fell asleep that night thinking about the kiss that might have been. What did a kiss feel like, anyway? Somehow I knew it wouldn’t be like the one I got from Mom or Dad at bedtime. The same species, maybe, but a radically different beast, to be sure. Like a wolf and a whippet – only science would put them on the same tree.

  Wendelin Van Draanen

  Mom, Dad, Kissing

  Wendelin Van Draanen (2008). “Flipped”, p.15, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I might have been eleven years old and a little socially immature, but I recognized a gauntlet being thrown down when I saw it, and I had no choice but to take it up.

  Gayle Forman

  Years, Choices, Immature

  Gayle Forman (2009). “If I Stay”, p.37, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• No one so dislikes being punished unjustly as the person who might have been punished justly on scores of previous occasions, if he had only been found out.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Might, Found, Score

  P. G. Wodehouse (2009). “Tales of St Austin's”, p.103, ReadHowYouWant.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The pain was as unexpected as a thunderclap in a clear sky. Eddis's chest tightened, as something closed around her heart. A deep breath might have calmed her, but she couldn't draw one. She wondered if she was ill, and she even thought briefly that she might have been poisoned. She felt Attolia reach out and take her hand. To the court it was unexceptional, hardly noticed, but to Eddis it was an anchor, and she held on to it as if to a lifeline. Sounis was looking at her with concern. Her responding smile was artificial.

  Megan Whalen Turner

  Pain, Heart, Hands

  4 Copy quote

• It might have been that notion, or just chance, or its more flamboyant relative, destiny.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Destiny, Might, Chance

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2005). “The Shadow of the Wind”, p.16, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• You are determined to hate him [Snape], Harry,” said Lupin with a faint smile. “And I understand; with James as your father, with Sirius as your godfather, you have inherited an old prejudice. By all means tell Dumbledore what you have told Arthur and me, but do not expect him to share your view of the matter; do not even expect him to be surprised by what you tell him. It might have been on Dumbledore’s orders that Severus questioned Draco.

  J. K. Rowling

  Father, Hate, Mean

  4 Copy quote