I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“I used to think I was afraid of being lost, but then I realized I was afraid of who might find me.”
Source: Raise the Blood
“i used to think
i was broken
because
i never once
spent my
daydreams
plucking
swollen pomegranates
from
someone else's tree.
- then i learned that society is broken, not me.”
Source: The Princess Saves Herself in This One
“I used to think I was different.
But I trace her storms in the way I love
always bracing for ruin,
always sleeping with the lights off,
as if that’s how you keep the house from burning.
I started having dreams in her accent.
Started pausing before I spoke, like her.
Started carrying umbrellas even when the sky looked clear.
I mistook her quiet for peace.
It was survival.
A hush that had teeth.
Now, when I cry, it rains in my daughter’s room.
The wallpaper peels in the same corner it did in mine.”
Source: A Shelf of Things I Never Said
“I used to think I was in love with Mia because she was in love with me. Now when I watch her strutting down the runway, twisting and flouncing the way her mother trained her, I know she's just a human coat hanger. A wired body I hold late at night and try to fit into.”
Source: Torpor: Though the Heart Is Warm
“I used to think I was like the wicket- keeper, which is like the catcher in base- ball, y'know what I mean? You can call the play a lot from behind the plate, y'know what I mean? You're not necessarily the star, you're not the one that makes the mark, but usually in the end, you're called upon to get a run when it's needed.”
“I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I was not poor, I was needy. They told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, I was deprived. Then they told me underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still do not have a dime but I have a great vocabulary.”
“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world
but then I thought, there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do
I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too.
well, I hope that if you are out there you read this and know that yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.”
“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you.”
“I used to think I was ugly. I thought I looked like a camel. A person who doesn't love themselves, they will see anything that pops up on their face. I've seen squirrels, I've seen a bird, and I've seen all kinds of animals on my face. But that is the result of self-hate. I've learned to say: 'You know what? I am a beautiful black woman'.”
“I used to think I was unstable, because I had this thirst for something. I could never figure out what it was. I couldn’t sleep at night, and I always wanted to be somewhere else. I have a window tattooed, this little box, and it’s because wherever I was, I wanted to be somewhere else. And, I always saw myself, wherever I was in life, staring out the window.”
“I used to think I would be rewarded for good behavior. Therefore, if I wasn’t understood, I must not be understandable; if I wasn’t successful, I must try harder; if something was wrong, it was my fault. More and more now, I see that context is all. When someone judges me or anyone or anything, I ask: Compared to what?”
Source: Doing Sixty & Seventy
“I used to think I wrote because there was something I wanted to say. Then I thought, 'I will continue to write because I have not yet said what I wanted to say'; but I know now I continue to write because I have not yet heard what I have been listening to.”
Source: Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures
“I used to think I'd be just like them when I grew up, but I am not. And the thing is, somewhere along the way, I stopped wanting to be like them, anyway.”
Source: My Sister's Keeper: A Novel
“I used to think I'd like to be a fireman - in fact, I still would - and the only drawback I could see was coming back to the firehouse, after a day of fighting fires, and still having to put in an eight-hour day writing.”
“I used to think if I could be free I should be the happiest woman," a young Mississippi woman recalled. "But when my master come to me, and says 'Lizzie, you is free!' it seems like I was in a kind of daze. And when I would wake up in the morning I would think to myself, Is I free? Hasn't I got to get up before daylight and go into the field and work?”
“I used to think if I married Master Jem—” Sophie picked at the blanket, then looked up and smiled bleakly. “You haven’t broken his heart yet, have you?” “No,” Tessa said. Just torn my own in two. “I haven’t broken his heart at all.”
Source: Clockwork Prince
“I used to think if it wasn't possible to be a family man and a totally dedicated artist, I'd rather be the former. I'm an idealist and a romantic.”
“I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident. I hadn't learned that it can happen so gradually you don't lose your stomach or hurt yourself in the landing. You don't necessarily sense the motion. I've found it takes at least two and generally three things to alter the course of a life: You slip around the truth once, and then again, and one more time, and there you are, feeling, for a moment, that it was sudden, your arrival at the bottom of the heap.”
“I used to think information was destroyed in black hole. This was my biggest blunder, or at least my biggest blunder in science.”
“i used to
think it was beautiful
the way i offered you all of my softness
and filled the air with tenderness
in the wake of your violence…
but now i know that i deserve to breathe
in tenderness too.”
“I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.”
Source: A Murder of Quality
“I used to think it was corny to be in love but actually it's corny to lose an awesome woman! Real talk.”
“I used to think it was hard to write, and I still find the process more or less unpleasant, but if I know what I'm doing it rattles along, then the rewrite whips it into shape rather quickly.”
“I used to think it was mere homesickness, then I started getting it at home.”
“I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.”
“I used to think it would be neat to play my whole career with one team. But as a baseball player you want to come to the ballpark every day knowing you have a chance to win and that the games mean something.”
“I used to think it's better if you just live and die and no one knows who you are.”
“I used to think JESUS motivated us with ultimatums, but now I know He pursues us in LOVE.”
“I used to think life could be shared with anyone,
but now I know choosing the right people is pretty important.”
Source: Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
“I used to think like Moses. That knocked me down for a couple years and put me in prison. Then I start thinking like Job. Job waited and became the wealthiest and richest man ever 'cause he believed in God.”
“I used to think like that at school," Sabriel answered. "Dreaming about the Old Kingdom. Proper Charter Magic. Dead to bind. Princes to be --"
"Rescued?”
Source: Sabriel
“I used to think love required the sacrifice of authenticity—that to be loved, I would have to become someone more socially acceptable, more emotionally available, less complicated.”
“I used to think love was two people sucking
on the same straw to see whose thirst was stronger,
but then I whiffed the crushed walnuts of your nape,
traced jackals in the snow-covered tombstones of your teeth.”
“I used to think marriage was a plate-glass window just begging for a brick.”
“I used to think masturbation was not really sex because it only involved me. That's a very limited view of human sexuality, and it isn't going to work for women.”
“I used to think mercy meant showing kindness to someone who didn't deserve it, as if only the recipient defined the act. The girl in between has learned that mercy is defined by its giver. Our flaws are obvious, yet we are loved and able to love, if we choose, because there is that bit of the divine still smoldering in us.”
“I used to think Ming was her favorite. But she’s grown too private, too remote. Rachel is lost. And I am too haolefied, what my mother taught me, so we could survive in that other world, the one that killed her”
Source: Shark Dialogues
“I used to think most Democrats in Congress who voted for [ObamaCare] really believed they were doing something good for the poor and the middle class. Now I wonder. It's crystal clear that just about everything President Barack Obama promised about his health plan was false, his deception deliberate. If Democrats really cared for the people harmed by the law, you'd think they'd admit their mistake, try to fix it. They haven't.”
“I used to think my father was an idiot, until I turned twenty-one... Then I thought he was a genus.”
“I used to think nightmares were like memories, tactile but harmless, the fear confined to that place inside me I could never reach with my eyes...But all it would take was that first breath back into consciousness and the darkness would let go of me. I could count on that, on the morning always rescuing me.”
“I used to think of all the billions of people in the world, and of all those people, how was I going to meet the right ones The right ones to be my friends, the right one to be my husband. Now I just believe you meet the people you're supposed to meet.”
“I used to think of deathlike I suppose soldiers think of it: it was a possible thing that I could well avoid by my skill.”
“I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will.”
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
“I used to think of myself as a comedian. I've always admired comedians. Their minds, the way in which they se the world is so striking, the way they juxtapose things, the way they can see humor in people. There's a liberation in that.”
Source: Al Pacino
“I used to think of that line in Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl', about the 'sad cup of coffee'.. ..I have had cold coffee and hot coffee and lousy coffee, But I've never had a sad cup of coffee.”
Source: Robert Rauschenberg
“I used to think of the Christian life as a sort of achievement test in which we were supposed to hurry to figure out all the right answers, but I'm starting to wonder if these slow, hard days of growth help transform us into our eternal form, and therefore are crucial. God lets us live out our belief (and our unbelief) in such a way that the truth of ourselves rises to the surface. Sincere doubt and deflective doubt are divided. What we love most is exposed by our long days of chasing. We are shown ourselves so that we can resign more and more to the indwelling God. Those who love the light pursue the light, and those who love the darkness of self-deification are allowed to feel the gravity of this choice while time remains to make new choices.”
Source: Courage, Dear Heart: Letters to a Weary World
“I used to think of two people in love like that. Like puzzle pieces, fitting together. But it's not like that at all. Love pulls a part of you out, and it pulls a part of him - like taffy, stretching but not separating. The tendrils of each one wrap around the other, until they meld together. One, but not quite. Separate, but not quite.”
Source: Here Without You
“I used to think of you that way, you know. Like the sun. My personal sun. You balanced out the clouds nicely for me." He sighed. "The clouds I can handle. But I can't fight with an eclipse.”
“I used to think one day we'd tell the story of us ; How we met, and the sparks flew instantly. People would say have said they're the lucky ones. I used to know my place was a spot next to you and then it went to me searching the room for an empty seat
'Cause lately I don't even know what page you're on
Oh, a simple complication, Miscommunications lead to fall out. So many things that I wish you knew oh and So many walls up, I can't break through
Now I'm back again on this website after five years
And I'm dying to know does it still hurt you like it hurts me?
I don't know what to say since a twist of fate, when it all broke down and the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now
How'd we end up this way? With both of us deleting our accounts and going our separate ways
So, today I'm telling the story of us of how I was losing my mind when I saw you had deleted the account and gone away without a goodbye and no I miss yous leaving me with just your quotes on Goodreads
How you held your pride like you should've held me
Why did we pretend this is nothing?
I'd tell you I miss you, but I don't know how
I never heard silence quite this loud
Now I'm standing alone in a crowded room in a UK library reminiscing about the days when I was 15 and you were a 16 California boy; how we fell for each and how we fought both too immature to realize what we were setting up in flames
How I still recall your replies and my singing heart and shining eyes. Didn't tell you back then and now I'm saying I liked it better when you were on my side
So many things that you wish I knew ; So many that I wish I had told you
But the story of us has broken, burned and ended
Now I'm standing alone in a crowded room
And we're not speaking : And I'm dying to know
Is it killing you like it's killing me?
But I don't know what to say
Since a twist of fate, when it all broke down
And the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now.”
“I used to think only people like Mother Teresa and Gandhi had a mission in life. We all have one. How do you find it? You listen to your life.
All those dead-end jobs? There's no such thing. In God's economy, nothing is ever wasted. The dots all connect in time.”
Source: God Is Always Hiring: 50 Lessons for Finding Fulfilling Work