Wrong Things Quotes - Page 3

• I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn't have a god, politics, ideas, ideals.

  Charles Bukowski

  Drinking, Ideas, Alcohol

  Charles Bukowski (2007). “Women”, Ecco

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• Most people use two totally different sets of criteria for judging themselves versus others. We tend to judge others according to their actions. It's very cut-and-dried. However, we judge ourselves by our intentions. Even if we do the wrong thing, if we believe our motives were good, we let ourselves off the hook. And we are often willing to do that over and over before requiring ourselves to change.

  John C. Maxwell

  Change, Leadership, Believe

  John C. Maxwell (2015). “The Leadership Handbook: 26 Critical Lessons Every Leader Needs”, p.13, Thomas Nelson

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• Here are the things I know for sure: When you think you're right, you are most likely wrong. Things that break - be they bones, hearts, or promises - can be put back together but will never really be whole. And, in spite of what I said, you can miss a person you've never known. I learn this over and over again.

  Jodi Picoult

  Heart, Thinking, Missing

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “Handle with Care: A Novel”, p.492, Simon and Schuster

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• There are those who are awkward in the face of sorrow, fearing to say the wrong thing; to them, I say, there is no wrong in comfort, ever. A kind word, a consoling arm ... these things are ever welcome.

  Jacqueline Carey

  Awkward, Sorrow, Faces

  Jacqueline Carey (2002). “Kushiel's Dart”, p.769, Macmillan

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• It is better to do the wrong thing that to do nothing.

  Winston Churchill

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• If you owe money, you can't pay them out. You just pay for everything, you do smart things, you eventually get very rich. If you do smart things and use leverage and do one wrong thing along the way, it could wipe you out, because anything times zero is zero. But it's reinforcing when the people around you are doing it successfully, you're doing it successfully, and it's a lot like Cinderella at the ball. [...] And everybody thinks they're going to leave at two minutes to 12.

  Howard Warren Buffett

  Zero, Smart, Thinking

  "Warren Buffett: I Haven't Seen As Much Economic Fear In My Adult Lifetime - Charlie Rose Interview". Interview with Charlie Rose, www.cnbc.com. October 1, 2008.

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• We are eating too much of the wrong thing, and not enough of the right thing

  David Wolfe

  Too Much, Eating, Enough

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• The system has a way of convincing people that because they live in the USA they are better off than all other people in the world. This gets them focused on the wrong things, of course, but it has been a tried and true way of deflecting class struggle, something I don't think Marx didn't fully anticipated. The education system, and the whole culture really, has a lot to do with how these feelings are transmitted to each new generation. When parents say their kids were heroes when they died for nothing in Iraq, you can see the power of this.

  Michael Yates

  Hero, Struggle, Kids

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• The Irish are the damnedest race. They put so much emphasis on so many wrong things.

  Margaret Mitchell

  Race, Emphasis

  Margaret Mitchell (2016). “Gone with the Wind”, p.374, Hamilton Books

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• I'm always amused that people zero in on one thing, and it's the wrong thing to zero in on, but nevertheless, the reason they do that is because the voice is what they know - the voice represents everything about the character, that's why.

  Frank Oz

  Zero, Character, Voice

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, film.avclub.com. August 16, 2007.

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• The essence of justice is mercy. Making a child suffer for wrong-doing is merciful to the child. There is no mercy in letting the child have its own will, plunging headlong to destruction with the bits in its mouth. There is no mercy to society nor to the criminal if the wrong is not repressed and the right vindicated. We injure the culprit who comes up to take his proper doom at the bar of justice, if we do not make him feel that he has done a wrong thing. We may deliver his body from the prison, but not at the expense of justice nor to his own injury.

  Edwin Hubbel Chapin

  Children, Essence, Justice

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• The moment you begin to depend on audience reaction, you're doing the wrong thing. You're doin' it wrong, it's a mistake, it's not right. You can't allow yourself, no matter what, to depend on them.

  Bruce Springsteen

  Mistake, Matter, Moments

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• Not doing anything can be worse than doing the wrong thing.

  Alexandra Potter

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• Saying just the right thing after a considerable, awkward pause is far less effective than saying the wrong thing with perfect timing. I'm telling you.

  Augusten Burroughs

  Perfect, Awkward, Timing

  Augusten Burroughs (2012). “This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.”, p.65, Macmillan

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• It's not life or death, the labyrinth. Suffering. Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you.

  John Green

  Alaska, Suffering, Labyrinth

  John Green (2015). “Looking For Alaska Special 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.68, Penguin

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• Better to fail at doing the right thing than to succeed at doing the wrong thing.

  Guy Kawasaki

  Leadership, Succeed, Failing

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• Once you accept that we're all imperfect it's the most liberating thing in the world. Then you can go around making mistakes and saying the wrong thing and tripping over on the street and all that and not feel worried.

  Paloma Faith

  Mistake, Acceptance, Imperfection

  "Paloma Faith: 'I wish I was more stupid'". Interview with Hermione Hoby, www.theguardian.com. August 7, 2010.

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• Never tell your enemy he is doing the wrong thing.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Enemy

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• I like to be the right thing in the wrong space and the wrong thing in the right space. But usually being the right thing in the wrong space and the wrong thing in the right space is worth it, because something funny always happens.

  Andy Warhol

  Interesting, Photographer, Happens

  "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again".

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• The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Friendship, Best Friend, Birthday

  Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “High Tide in Tucson”, p.88, Faber & Faber

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• So the Dark did a simple thing. They showed the maker of the sword his own uncertainty and fear. Fear of having done the wrong thing--fear that having done this one great thing, he would never again be able to accomplish anything of great worth--fear of age, of insufficiency, of unmet promise. All such great fears, that are the doom of people given the gift of making, and lie always somewhere in their minds.

  Susan Cooper

  Lying, Dark, Simple

  Susan Cooper (2010). “Silver on the Tree”, p.163, Simon and Schuster

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• Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the things you want to see.

  S. E. Hinton

  Life, Sight, Years

  S. E. Hinton (2012). “The Outsiders”, p.84, Penguin

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• A lot of my characters in all of my books have a self-destructive urge. They'll do precisely the thing that they know is wrong, take a perverse delight in doing the wrong thing.

  Richard Russo

  Book, Character, Self

  FaceBook post by Richard Russo from May 29, 2011

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• Any place, then, can become a cemetery. All it takes is your body. It's not fair, I think, and I get this petulant wish for ugly flowers and mourners, my mother's old familiar grief. Somebody I love to tend my future grave. Probably this is the wrong thing to be wishing for.

  Karen Russell

  Mother, Grief, Flower

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• It's like they say in the Internet world — if you're doing the same thing today you were doing six months ago, you're doing the wrong thing. Parents can learn a lot from that.

  Bruce Feiler

  Parent, Six Months, World

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