Willing Quotes - Page 31

• The abbot told me once that lying was a betrayal to one's self. It's evidence of self-loathing. You see, when you are so ashamed of your actions, thoughts, or intentions, you lie to hide it rather than accept yourself for who you really are. The idea of how others see you becomes more important than the reality of you. It's like when a man would rather die than be thought of as a coward. His life is not as important to him as his reputation. In the end, who is the braver? The man who dies rather than be thought of as a coward or the man who lives willing to face who he really is?

  Michael J. Sullivan

  Betrayal, Lying, Reality

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• The way Mom saw it, women should let menfolk do the work because it made them feel more manly. That notion only made sense if you had a strong man willing to step up and get things done, and between Dad's gimp, Buster's elaborate excuses, and Apache's tendency to disappear, it was often up to me to keep the place from falling apart. But even when everyone was pitching in, we never got out from under all the work. I loved that ranch, though sometimes it did seem that instead of us owning the place, the place owned us.

  Jeannette Walls

  Mom, Strong, Sex

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• When we stop believing in gods we can start believing in their stories, I retort. There are of course no such things as miracles, but if there were and so tomorrow we woke up to find no more believers on earth, no more devout Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, why then, sure the beauty of the stories would be a thing we could focus on because they wouldn't be dangerous any more, they would become capable of compelling the only belief that leads to truth, that is, the willing, disbelieving of the reader in a well-told tale.

  Salman Rushdie

  Christian, Believe, Focus

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• There is something so tender about this to me, about being willing to have your makeup wash off, your eyes tear up, your nose start to run. Its tender partly because it harkens back to infancy, to your mother washing your face with love and lots or water, tending to you, making you clean all over again.

  Anne Lamott

  Mother, Running, Eye

  Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p.204, Anchor

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• That's one of the things I like about Mary Lou. She's willing to believe the worst about anyone.

  Janet Evanovich

  Believe, Mary, Worst

  Janet Evanovich (2007). “More Plums in One: Four to Score, High Five, and Hot Six”, p.477, Macmillan

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• Camouflage doesn't help when the other guy is willing to defoliate the whole jungle.

  Andrew Vachss

  Guy, Camouflage, Helping

  Andrew Vachss (2001). “False Allegations”, p.255, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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• He destroyed in her the knowing, doubting, sophisticated Ella, and again and again he put her intelligence to sleep, and with her willing connivance, so that she floated darkly on her love for him, on her naivety, which is another word for a spontaneous creative faith. And when his own distrust of himself destroyed this woman-in-love, so that she began thinking, she would fight to return to naivety.

  Doris Lessing

  Sleep, Fighting, Thinking

  Doris May Lessing (1981). “The Golden Notebook”, Bantam

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• I've married a man who owns nine cows," said Jinjur to Ozma, "and now I am happy and contented and willing to lead a quiet life and mind my own business." "Where is your husband?" asked Ozma. "He is in the house, nursing a black eye," replied Jinjur, calmly. "The foolish man would insist upon milking the red cow when I wanted him to milk the white one; but he will know better next time, I am sure.

  L. Frank Baum

  Husband, Eye, Nursing

  L. Frank Baum (2016). “Ozma of Oz: American Literature”, p.105, VM eBooks

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• Love isn't just about feeling sure of the other person, knowing what he would give up for you. It's knowing with certainty what you are willing to surrender for his sake. Make no mistake; each partner gives up something. Individual dreams are surrendered for a shared one.

  Robin Hobb

  Dream, Giving Up, Mistake

  Robin Hobb (2003). “Mad Ship”, p.299, Spectra

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• After all, the only way to communicate is to find someone who can comprehend; the only way to be forgiven is to find someone who is willing to forgive.

  Jodi Picoult

  Forgiving, Way, Communicate

  Jodi Picoult (2007). “Perfect Match”, p.510, Simon and Schuster

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• But I was willing to embrace mortal life again, before chasing immortality.

  J. K. Rowling

  Immortality, Embrace, Chasing

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• Matthew, much to his own surprise, was enjoying himself. Like most quiet folks he liked talkative people when they were willing to do the talking themselves and did not expect him to keep up his end of it.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  Talking, People, Quiet

  Lucy Maud Montgomery (2016). “Anne of Green Gables”, p.16, Xist Publishing

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• Remember how pissed you got when we had to do all that reading about the Rising back in sixth grade? I thought you were going to get us both expelled. You said the only way things could've gotten as bad as they did was if people were willing to take the first easy answer they could find and cling to it, rather than doing anything as complicated as actually thinking.

  Mira Grant

  Reading, Thinking, People

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• I say to myself if you believe deeply in your heart you must defy, and if you are willing to pay for your defiance, you must always do it, even though the pain may be much. Too many times in our lives we do not do it, and we pay even more.

  James Frey

  Pain, Believe, Heart

  James Frey (2011). “The Final Testament”, p.45, Hachette UK

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• We're sitting in the dark willing to sell our souls for another peppermint with enough uranium to give a terrorist a wet dream. - Diana

  Michael Grant

  Dream, Dark, Giving

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• It started when she passed me a note in English class. The note said you don't seem as awful as I hear you are. I passed one back that read: beware I am as awful as people say and worse. She laughed and I had a friend. She didn't become my Ally and I didn't ask her to or want her to but she became my friend and that was more than anyone else was willing to do.

  James Frey

  Class, People, Awful

  James Frey (2004). “A Million Little Pieces”, p.119, Anchor

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• So I simply don't buy the concept of "Generation X" as the "lost generation." I see too many good kids out there, kids who are ready and willing to do the right thing, just as Jack was. Their distractions are greater, though. There's no more simple life with simple choices for the young.

  Johnny Cash

  Kids, Simple, Choices

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• People are simply not willing to look at their problems honestly and admit that they have problems.

  Benjamin Carson

  People, Looks, Problem

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• It does not matter where we come from or what we look like. If we recognize our abilities, are willing to learn and to use what we know in helping others, we will always have a place in the world.

  Benjamin Carson

  Helping Others, Matter, Where We Come

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• What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  What Matters, Ideas, Needs

  The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, (Journals 1A), August 1, 1835.

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• My office is in a building in midtown Chicago. It's an older building, and not in the best of shape, especially since there was that problem with the elevator last year. I don't care what anyone says, that wasn't my fault. when a giant scorpion the size of an Irish wolfhound is tearing its way through the roof of your elevator car, you get real willing to take desperate measures.

  Jim Butcher

  Real, Years, Desperate Measures

  Jim Butcher (2008). “Grave Peril: Book three of The Dresden Files”, p.19, Penguin

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• There are intellectual vagabonds, to whom the hereditary dwelling-place of their fathers seems too cramped and oppressive for them to be willing to satisfy themselves with the limited space any more: instead of keeping within the limits of a temperate style of thinking, and taking as inviolable truth what furnishes comfort and tranquility to thousands, they overlap all bounds of the traditional and run wild with their imprudent criticism and untamed mania for doubt, these extravagating vagabonds.

  Max Stirner

  Running, Father, Thinking

  Max Stirner (1982). “The Ego and Its Own”, p.113, Rebel Press

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• Bob, would you be willing to take on Evil Bob?" Bob's eyes darted nervously. "I'd . . . prefer not to. I'd really, really prefer not to. You have no idea. That me was crazy. And buff. He worked out.

  Jim Butcher

  Crazy, Eye, Ideas

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• My point is that true leaders...understand the possible consequences of their decisions, and are willing to bear that weight. The question is whether that's a step you're willing to take." -Carlist Rieekan

  Timothy Zahn

  Decision, Leader, Weight

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• I’ve won his heart, but it’s like owning a house in which most of the doors are permanently locked. He wants to shield me from all unpleasantness. And it’s not really marriage—not like the marriage you have with Cam—until he’s willing to share the worst of himself as well as the best of himself.

  Lisa Kleypas

  Heart, Doors, House

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