Terrible Things Quotes - Page 10

• Edward's grief if you die will be a terrible thing. It will hurt him, a lot, and men like him never grieve alone. He will spread his grief all over us, not because we failed, but because it'll give him something to focus on so he doesn't have to feel the pain.

  Laurell K. Hamilton

  Hurt, Pain, Grief

  Laurell K. Hamilton (2011). “Hit List”, p.163, Hachette UK

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• And once again I found myself wondering, as I drifted off to stunned and unbelieving sleep:How do these terrible things always happen to me?

  Jeff Lindsay

  Sleep, Wonder, Found

  Jeff Lindsay (2005). “Dearly Devoted Dexter”, p.144, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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• Why isn't life better designed so it warns you when terrible things are about to happen?

  Maggie O'Farrell

  Terrible, Happens

  Maggie O'Farrell (2009). “After You'd Gone”, p.18, Hachette UK

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• And that's when she put her book down. And looked at me. And said it: "Life isn't fair, Bill. we tell our children that it is, but it's a terrible thing to do. It's not only a lie, it's a cruel lie. Life is not fair, and it never has been, and it's never going to be.

  William Goldman

  Life, Children, Lying

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• The most terrible thing about it is not that it breaks one’s heart—hearts are made to be broken—but that it turns one’s heart to stone.

  Oscar Wilde

  Heart, Broken, Stones

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.108, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• It is a terrible thing for an author to have a lot of people running about his book without any invitation from him at all.

  A. A. Milne

  Running, Book, People

  A. A. Milne (2013). “Once On A Time”, p.38, Simon and Schuster

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• The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions--to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call "ourselves," to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be "good.

  C. S. Lewis

  Impossible Things, Self, Hands

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.180, Simon and Schuster

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• Unhappy people do the oddest, most terrible things, just trying to keep despair at bay. All you have to do is accept them...go around them...take evasive action.

  Geraldine McCaughrean

  People, Despair, Unhappy

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• For a moment she turned in a circle, staring at her hands, which she held high and useless, close to her breast. She bobbed and shambled like an ape doing a trick, and her face was the silly, bewildered face of a joker's victim. And yet she could make no move that was not beautiful. Her trapped terror was more lovely than any joy that Molly had ever seen, and that was the most terrible thing about it.

  Peter S. Beagle

  Beautiful, Silly, Moving

  Peter S. Beagle (2003). “A fine and private place: The last unicorn”

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• He said you couldn't pretend the terrible things in life didn't happen. You can't clean it up. You keep all the refuse and the scars. It's how you learn. And try to make improvements.

  Marisha Pessl

  Things In Life, Trying, Scar

  Marisha Pessl (2006). “Special Topics in Calamity Physics”, p.199, Penguin

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• The men who committed the atrocities of September 11 were certainly not "cowards," as they were repeatedly described in the Western media, nor were they lunatics in any ordinary sense. They were men of faith—perfect faith, as it turns out—and this, it must finally be acknowledged, is a terrible thing to be.

  Sam Harris

  Men, Media, Perfect

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.67, W. W. Norton & Company

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• It is a terrible thing to want something you cannot have. It takes you over. I couldn't think straight because of it. There was no one else, I realized, whom I could possibly tell.

  Maggie O'Farrell

  Thinking, Want Something, Terrible

  Maggie O'Farrell (2008). “The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox”, p.151, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The terrible thing about love is that it takes away your safety net, your balancing pole. Even the tightrope you walk upon will disappear beneath you, yet love expects you to keep walking anyway, arms outstretched, one foot after the other, on nothing more than air.

  Christopher Barzak

  Love Is, Air, Feet

  Christopher Barzak (2008). “The Love We Share Without Knowing”, p.65, Bantam

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• The city breathing, burning, living the life thy had preserved. Ten million lives and more. If something should happen to all that life - how terrible! Nita gulped for control as she remembered Fred's word of just this morning, an eternity ago. And this was what being a wizard was about. Keeping terrible things from happening, even when it hurts. Not just power, or control of what ordinary people couldn't control, or delight in being able to make strange things happen. Those were the side effects - not the reason, the purpose.

  Diane Duane

  Hurt, Morning, Live Life

  "So You Want To Be a Wizard (Young Wizards, Book 1)". Book by Diane Duane, 1983.

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• Reader, do you think it is a terrible thing to hope when there is really no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since,in the end, it really makes no difference to anyone but you?

  Kate DiCamillo

  Thinking, Differences, Soldier

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• Here is a list of terrible things, The jaws of sharks, a vultures wings The rabid bite of the dogs of war, The voice of one who went before, But most of all the mirror's gaze, Which counts us out our numbered days.

  Clive Barker

  Dog, Fear, War

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• It was a haunting feeling, the sort of sensation you get when you wonder whether you are two people, the other of which does things you can't explain, bad and terrible things.

  Donald Miller

  Two, People, Feelings

  Donald Miller (2007). “Miller 3-in-1: Blue Like Jazz, Through Painted Deserts, Searching for God”, p.13, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• It is a terrible thing, this kindess that human beings do not lose. Terrible, because when we are finally naked in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, we end up with that small change. We have nothing else to give.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Dark, Small Changes, Giving

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2000). “The Left Hand of Darkness”, p.120, Penguin

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• You'll see, you'll come to understand. These big things, these terrible things, are not the important ones. If they were, how could one go on living? No, it is the small, little things that make up a day, that bring fullness and happiness to a life.

  Benedict Freedman

  Important, Goes On, Littles

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• but ignorance is a kind of insanity in the human animal. People who delight in torturing defenseless children or tiny creatures are in reality insane. The terrible thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and innocent expression in public.

  Akira Kurosawa

  Children, Ignorance, Animal

  Akira Kurosawa (2011). “Something Like An Autobiography”, p.83, Vintage

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• For me, Art is the restoration of order. It may discuss all sort of terrible things, but there must be satisfaction at the end. A little bit of hunger, but also satisfaction.

  Toni Morrison

  Art, Order, Restoration

  Interview with Don Swaim, 1987.

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• Me, Polly Garter, under the washing line, giving the breast in the garden to my bonny new baby. Nothing grows in our garden, only washing. And babies. And where's their fathers live, my love? Over the hills and far away. You're looking up at me now. I know what you're thinking, you poor little milky creature. You're thinking, you're no better than you should be, Polly, and that's good enough for me. Oh, isn't life a terrible thing, thank God?

  Dylan Thomas

  Baby, Father, Garden

  Under Milk Wood (1954) p. 30

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• Zach found himself remembering something he'd heard Soledad and Leo saying the previous night, about healing. That it was mysterious. That it took time. And that Lucy was just at the beginning. That a terrible thing had happened - two terrible things, really - but they were now over. And that Lucy would be okay, in the end.

  Nancy Werlin

  Healing, Night, Two

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• There is a kind of crying I hope you have not experienced, and it is not just crying about something terrible that has happened, but a crying for all of the terrible things that have happened, not just to you but to everyone you know and to everyone you don’t know and even the people you don’t want to know, a crying that cannot be diluted by a brave deed or a kind word, but only by someone holding you as your shoulders shake and your tears run down your face.

  Daniel Handler

  Running, People, Brave

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• The numbing mind-ream of knowing you're alone not because people won't accept you but because you find so little worth accepting. An imposed solitude is better than simply tolerating your company in waiting for something better. So loneliness is not such a terrible thing when you consider that the alternative to thought provoking solace is to be surrounded only by remindings of why that solitude is preferable.

  Jhonen Vasquez

  Loneliness, Knowing, People

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