I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“I can't tell my dreams from my nightmares”
Source: Mr. Monster
“I can't tell whether a revived man would appreciate his second chance or yearn for the stolen serenity.”
“I can't tell you how aroused it makes me when you quote codes, lieutenant.”
Source: Naked in Death
“I can't tell you how
I knew - but I did know that I had crossed
The border. Everything I loved was lost
But no aorta could report regret.
A sun of rubber was convulsed and set;
And blood-black nothingness began to spin
A system of cells interlinked within
Cells interlinked within cells interlinked
Within one stem. And dreadfully distinct
Against the dark, a tall white fountain played.”
Source: Pale fire
“I can't tell you how many times I heard some European girl say that Israeli & Palestinian men are exactly the same. I can see that honestly. Same looks, same attitude, same misogyny. I can't even tell if a guy is Palestinian or Israeli before they start speaking, and if I didn't know what true Arabic sounds like, no way in hell I see a difference.”
Source: Palestinian Dissident
“I can't tell you how many times I wrote something thinking it expressed one idea, only to find people saw something else in it.”
Source: Lie like an artist: Communicate successfully by focusing on essential truths
“I can't tell you how many times in my life I have been told that I have “control issues”. Historically, this statement has brought me annoyance—the kind of irritation that can only be described as a self-protective reaction to having my behaviours labelled for exactly what they were. Needless to say, these accusations would make me defensive. I'd pull my armour tighter and get out my weapons—anything to protect myself from the truth.
I realized, one day, that there were only a few things I could control, and a whole lot of things that I couldn't. I realized that trying to control everything around me was a recipe for failure, because it simply wasn't possible.
I wish I could tell you that I "let go" then—that it was a lovely, beautiful spiritual moment, and now I'm all better. But that isn't true. Because, for me, seeking to control things which can't be controlled isn't a random tick or flaw. It's a stage of communication in the language of my own mind. If I don't listen to the first whispers that tell me I've repressed some emotion or neglected to process some event—then, stage two starts. Every piece of dirt on the floor, every chewing noise, every unexpected obstacle... they all become intolerable.
So, I have two choices when this happens. I can allow my desire to control the outside world to turn into trying to control it. Or, I can allow myself to hear what is being said to me—to interpret this strange language that I speak to myself in and respond with compassion.
Do I consistently do the wise thing first? No. I forget. And then I remember, somewhere in the middle of neurotically scrubbing a wall. But I remember faster now than I did before, and sometimes I really am able to respond quickly.
It's a journey. I'm not perfect. But I am doing the right thing, and I get better at it every time I have the chance to practice. That's what learning and letting go really is—a practice. It's never over. And it never is, and never will be, perfect.”
“I can't tell you how many times over the years people tried to give me soy cheese and tempeh fake-meat, and other ickiness and pass it off as yummy. I'm sorry but no, you cannot make vegetable protein taste like bacon, no matter how much salt and liquid smoke you put in it! I wanted to celebrate good food, prepared in ways that make it good for you, which is surprisingly easy to do if you know the basics. If you use exceptional products that have inherent natural goodness, you don't need to swamp them in butter or cream to make them taste good." For dinner we'd had grilled skirt steaks, spicy Thai sesame noodles from my friend Doug's recipe, braised cauliflower, and for dessert, poached pears and Greek yogurt with lavender flowers and black sage honey. Filling, balanced, nutritionally sound.”
Source: Good Enough to Eat
“I can't tell you how terribly glad I am that you're going to be all right," George said, rather thickly. "I...I wouldn't know how to act without a twin.”
Source: The Apprentices
“I can't tell you—oh I can't tell you—how awful—how sort of unlivable—everything is now—like a great black wall in front of me—Something's got to smash.”
Source: Henry and Cato
“I can't tell you that. But not because I'm not willing to tell you." He looked down at the guns. A Desert Eagle and a Sig Sauer nine millimeter, and he'd killed with both of them. "When you take a man's life that's between you, God and that man's soul. It's a personal conversation you work out your entire life. I can't talk about it because there are no words for it.”
Source: Ice Queen
“I can't tell you that I understand your love for me, but it has become an essential part of my life. I promise to love you with every cell of my being until I cease to exist.”
Source: Edge of the Veil
“I can’t tell you what’s in all of God’s plans, but I do know part of them. He empowers you with reason and will. Those are your strengths. That’s what gives you the chance to be great in his sight. He gave you a mind and codes to live by so you could be in charge of your own actions.”
Source: Monarchs and Mendicants
“I can't tell you what's real for you. But in return, you can't say what's real for me either. I get to choose. Not you.”
Source: The Rest of Us Just Live Here
“I can't tell you what the rest of that day was like. To feel so incredibly unwanted, unloved, alone. I had no one. Nothing. No money, no belongings, no family.
Just a wound.”
Source: It Starts with Us
“I can't tell you which way the gale has turned
for waves crash in from west and east, and we
are tossed and driven between, our black ship
laboring under the giant storm.
The sea washes across the decks and maststep
and dark daylight already shows through long rents
in the sails. Even the halyards slacken as
windward waves coil above the hull.
What sore labor to bale the water we've shipped!
Let us raise bulwarks and ride out the storm,
heeding my words: 'Let each man now be famous.'
Yet base cowards betray the state.”
“I can't tell you
Why I loved him or
What it meant. When you
Are a child, you know only
The kind of love your little
Life lacked, so every
Blooming Flower is a field.”
“I can't thank my haters enough for not allowing me to quit.”
“I can’t think about failure. If I do, I’ll be doomed from the start.”
Source: Cold-Hearted Rake
“I can't think about him, but I can't forget him, either. It's not right to forget someone you love.”
“I can't think I had much of a sense of humor as long as I remained the only child. When my brother Edward came along we both became comics, making each other laugh.”
Source: On Writing
“I can't think of a better way to revenge someone who tried to break you,
Than to live and love life more without them.”
Source: Live & Remember
“I can’t think of a more misused phrase than ‘I can’t,’ except in this instance.”
“I can’t think of a morning I haven’t woken up with the thought of STRANGLING you! That sanctimonious image of yours fooled everyone – except me! Because I! KNOW! EVIL!”
“I can't think of a single instance where I've ever been looked at like he's looking at me right now.”
Source: Without Merit
“I can’t think of anything more depressing than to be an Egyptian high priest on display next to a set of vintage wagon wheels and a two-headed chicken.”
Source: All the Bright Places
“I can’t think of anything more disheartening than living a life without a clear purpose.”
“I can't think of anything more vile and small and pathetic than terrorizing the smallest, most vulnerable community of people who want nothing from you, except the right to exist.”
“I can't think of anything that anyone has ever accomplished without having some sort of self-discipline. Without knowing how to work for it. Without learning how to earn it. I talk to my friends who are writers. I say, "Well, how do you do it?" Most all of them will say, "I sit down. I force myself every day to sit down and write for at least two hours. Whether something comes out of it or doesn't come out of it, whether I finish my fifty pages or two, I sit down and I do that because I have to make myself do it."
That's what a work ethic is. Any person I know who is successful in my business or any other business is so because they work their asses off for it, because nothing is for free. If you want something, if you want to achieve success in any area of life, you must apply your discipline and your work ethic. Because discipline is what helps you consciously do things in order to reach a desired goal. Discipline is a rejection of entitlement and expectation. Discipline is having a strong awareness that your choices have impact and that your actions make a difference.”
Source: The Body Book: The Law of Hunger, the Science of Strength, and Other Ways to Love Your Amazing Body - Cameron Diaz
“I can’t think of one reason big enough for them to lie and small enough for it not to matter.”
Source: Gone, Baby, Gone
“I can’t think when Brad looks at me like that.
Like I’m everything.
Like he can’t get enough.
Then he goes and kisses me like he can’t stand not touching me for a single second.”
Source: Glad You Exist
“I can't today," I said. "Maybe tomorrow?"
"Can't tomorrow," said Quinn. "I have a family thing. I guess we're logistically star-crossed, Juliet."
Sometimes Quinn calls me Juliet because of how we had to do that scene together, and whenever he does it's good for another bout of brain paralysis. So all I could manage back was "Oh."
"But I'll talk to you later, okay?" he said.
I didn't even try to say anything else but just nodded, wondering as I did what would happen next. The steps had largely emptied by then.
But before I could do much wondering, Quinn's lips were on mine.
And this time it definitely counted.”
“I can’t transform the world, Jamie. The world’s too big and too messy and too stubborn.”
“Who said anything about transforming the world?” He shrugged. “What about just making it a little better? And then a little better? And then a little more, until, one day, maybe long after we’re gone, it has transformed?”
Source: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
“I can’t translate myself into language any more.”
Source: Culture of One
“I can't trust a soul, people these days change every day.”
“I can't understand how she could have wanted to live back here, away from everything," said Jane. "Oh, I can easily understand that," said Anne thoughtfully. "I wouldn't want it myself for a steady thing because, although I love the fields and woods, I love people too...”
Source: Anne of Avonlea
“I can't understand people who don't like chocolate. I was once going out with a
guy, this guy Robert I was telling you about, and I was never really
comfortable with him, but I couldn't work out why. Then one day it all became
clear: he didn't like chocolate. I mean he didn't just not love it, this guy
actually hated it. You could have put a bar in front of him and he wouldn't
have touched it. That kind of thinking is so far removed from anything I can
relate to, you know. Well, after that, you can imagine, it was clear we had to
break up.”
Source: On Love
“I can't understand why anyone would ever leave here," he said if as captivated by their surroundings as she was. "It's...breathtaking." He pulled up to the house and cut the engine before he looked over at her. "Just like you.”
Source: Into Dust
“I can't understand
why dark northern soldiers
and light ones
are separated into different brigades.
The dead are all buried together
in hasty mass graves,
bones touching.”
Source: The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom
“I can’t understand why men are allowed to straddle a horse, while we - who are supposed to be the weaker sex - must hang off the side, praying for our lives.”
Source: Whitney, My Love
“I can't understand why nobody at Safeway knew where the Lung Butter and Toe Jam were!!”
“I can’t understand why so many of them seem to be in one place at the same time, but I wonder if a man’s final thought is that they don’t want to be alone when they take their last breath.”
Source: The Doctor's Daughter
“I can't undo some of the things in my life that have negatively affected me, but I can practise being a better person, and I think that's a pretty decent place to start.”
Source: Zayn
“I can't untangle, I can't untangle what I feel and what would matter most.”
“I can’t wait for that day. I’m getting a cake made.” Laurie held her hands up dramatically. “EAT SHIT, BITCH!”
Source: A Sinful Sacrifice
“I can’t wait for the day when we’ll never have to say ‘goodbye’ to each other again.”
Source: The Bridge To Caracas
“I can't wait. I thought i could, but i can't. Sorry”
Source: All the Bright Places
“I can't wait to get out of here. My parents... they act like everything since high school blows, like they'd get in a time machine if they could. IT's so sad. I mean life is all about what's next, you know?”
Source: You Love Me
“I can’t wait to hear you say a hundred percent. Someday maybe.”
“I can't wait to hike around the mountains looking for old bones,” Stacey said. “Can we do it at midnight under a full moon on Friday the 13th?”
Source: House of Whispers