I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“I'd learned how to handle a gun before I was fully potty trained.”
“I’d learned long ago that people had angles. Some were long and complicated, a maze you’d never unravel until they had you thoroughly trapped. Others were painfully obvious. Two turns to the truth. And still others carefully masked the turn, hid it so you didn’t see it until it was too late, and you were too broken to turn around and retreat.”
Source: By Blood & Blade
“I’d learned so much from traveling to familiar places that I figured I’d learn twice as much by going to a place I knew nothing about.”
Source: Cheers, Beers, and Eastern Promise
“I'd learned that her deflections and projections, were actually her confessions.
Excerpt: "Rebuilding Brick by Brick. Surviving and Thriving After Narcissistic Abuse" by Mekael Shane © 2025”
“I'd learned the hard way that when people ask you how you're doing after a loved one's death, they don't really want to know. They want to hear that you've moved on because they can't stand to look at your pain. And when I didn't move on, the emails gradually trickled to nothing.”
Source: The Collected Regrets of Clover
“I’d learned the lesson loud and clear, one that has been re-taught to me and so many other women and femmes who have been targets of harassment and abuse: The world owes you nothing. If you are so brave as to express your gender in public, you will be harassed, you will be hurt, you may even be assaulted, and no one will have to apologize for how they treated you. They will get away with it every single time. They will make you feel ashamed of feeling hurt. They will make you feel like you are just whining. And speaking up will only make it worse. Watching people who love you—who support you and want the best for you—try to take on the world and fight for you, only to lose, will only make it hurt more. So you stop talking about what you’re facing. You stop talking about how much you’re hurting. You stop telling people how shitty the world is to you because you are gender nonconforming. You end an email with a smile, take the abuse, and pretend it doesn’t hurt you. You learn you have no real power, that the only power you do have is the power not to flinch when you are punched, not to cry when you are stung, not to acknowledge that abuse leads to injury.”
Source: Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story
“I'd learned to admire his unshakeable optimism. I'd come to depend on the comforting warmth his great smile provided.”
Source: Shantaram
“I’d learned to avoid mirrors. They never seemed to show me what I wanted to see.”
Source: Shadow and Bone
“I’d learned what the word 'happy' meant. It meant there was no weight in your belly, and if you asked yourself how you felt, the answer spontaneously came back: good.”
Source: One Blade Of Grass: Finding the Old Road of the Heart, a Zen Memoir
“I'd leave all my haters in my motherfucking dust.”
Source: Stalker Stalked
“I’d leave this house the first chance I got, but not by chasing after a boy, including my brother. I’d do it on my own terms, following my dreams, not someone else’s.”
Source: Furia
“I'd left the soon-to-be-blue doors open, and Clementine had let herself in. As we entered the kitchen, I could see her putting the finishing touches on two bowls of something chocolaty.
"What is this?" I asked, taking a closer look.
Clementine finished her plating and stepped back. "Nutella mousse with hazelnut liqueur, served with chocolate-dipped hazelnut shortbread."
She was good; I had to give her that. Nico and I shared a deep, genetic affinity for the chocolate-hazelnut spread. Without hesitation, I picked up the spoon and dug in.
An intense, perfectly complex Nutella taste met my tongue. My eyes slid shut. "That is so good."
"Try it with the shortbread," Clementine instructed.
I dipped the chocolaty-end of the shortbread into the mousse. The crunch of the cookie set off the rich mousse like a dream. A chocolaty, hazelnutty, Nutella-y dream.
Dragging my attention away from dessert, I looked to Nico to see his reaction.
He stood staring at me, spoon in hand, mousse untouched.
I frowned at him. "What on earth are you waiting for? Eat!"
Nico scowled but dug his spoon into the mousse. He took a bite; his face froze.
"Seriously," I said, working two more spoonfuls, "I might lick the bowl."
Nico shrugged. "It's pretty good."
Clementine squared her shoulders. "Pretty good?"
"You want the job?"
"Yes, I do," she answered.
"I'll think about it," he told her, his expression guarded.
"Thank you," Clementine replied, unfazed.
I scooped another bite of mousse. "This shortbread? It's perfect!"
"It's the French butter. I get it from your grandmother's supplier--he gives us, I mean, me, a good deal. I bake croissants for him. He imports French butter but can't bake. Isn't that sad?"
I nodded, nibbling at the shortbread. "The butter certainly imports a richness of flavor that's quite special.”
Source: A Table by the Window
“I'd left them because I'd loved them. Beth and my parents and my friends and my life-my free, American life. I loved them, and if I had a chance to protect them from the people who wanted to destroy them then I had to take that chance even if it meant I would never see them again.”
Source: The Truth of the Matter
“I'd let her sell it to Dad. They tended not to contradict each other so if one of them had already said "yes" it usually meant "yes." If one of them said "no", ditto--which was why I'd asked Mom first.”
Source: Impulse
“I'd let him get under my skin, and now he had started to occupy my every thought.”
Source: Surrender Your Love
“I'd like a break. I'm forty-six, so the undertow is beginning to get to me."
"Then what are you good for?" she asked, in a kind tone.
"Oh, a man around the house has his uses. A dildo; an ear to talk to; two arms around you; a voice from the next room when you're lonesome."
"I have a dog to talk to."
"That might be a deal killer.”
Source: In the Country of the Blind
“I'd like the ability to see what you're really like underneath all your posing and big words and old man's overcoat or whatever the hell it is you're wearing. You might say 'ethereal' and know what's so goddamn good about kitchen cupboards with no handles, but you're not fooling anyone. You just decided what part of the shitshow you want to make public. My guess is your family is as screwed upas the rest of us.”
Source: 36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You
“I'd like the whole world to be built on these terms, but for now, let's cherish the Barbican and what it means.”
Source: Barbican Residents: Inside the Iconic Brutalist Estate
“I’d like them to appreciate the power of the individual—and I don’t mean me; I mean the power each person has to make choices and be accountable for himself or herself. I’ve noticed that people are quick to put you in a category—if you come from this place then you are that thing. But I’ve never placed much value in statistics and trends, bar graphs and socioeconomic data that sum people up. I stop listening when somebody asks me if I know what my chances are. I don’t know that I believe in probability. People are inexplicable and incomprehensible, and nobody really knows what’s possible until they try. I prefer the exceptions to the rules. I like people who try, even when their chances are zero.”
Source: The Autumn Balloon
“I'd like to accept this on behalf of all the stories told and untold, the writers heard and unheard, from the remarkable continent I'm part of. Please keep listening to us, there's a lot more to come.”
“I'd like to be awfully hurt for you, Collins, the way that Jesus hurt for sinners.”
Source: The Well Of Loneliness
“I'd like to be in love like this description, wouldn't you?
...they moved among the carriages, the crowds, the noise, oblivious of everything but themselves, hearing nothing, as if they had been walking together in the country on a bed of dead leaves.”
Source: A Sentimental Education
“I'd like to be sitting here five years from now, Marshal, and know you're still in the world."
Teddy looked down at the hand on his knee. Looked up at Cawley.
"I would too," he said softly.”
Source: Shutter Island
“I’d like to be the moon in your sky.”
“I'd like to be tidy, said Hen, I try, but I guess you can't be what you aren't.”
Source: The Sunday Philosophy Club
“I'd like to believe every moment I have spent, all the time I have spent with the people I love most lives on forever”
“I'd like to believe that my kiss has made you see me in a whole different light.”
“I'd like to believe that what I offer is way better than what any escort agency on the planet can offer. I help my clients master the art of creating and turning dreams of ecstasy into reality.”
“I'd like to draw you,"
"Just like this, with your face kissing the stars... I think it's the most beautiful things I've ever seen.”
Source: Scarred
“I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.”
“I’d like to get to know all the demons’ wives better. Now that I’m going to be one of them.” A bright expression of delight spread on Ivar’s handsome face. “Can I call you my wife now?”
Source: The Forgotten
“I'd like to get to know you better.”
Source: Devoted to Destiny
“I'd like to go back to five years old again. Just sometimes. To be turning over rocks and looking for pill bugs and holding earthworms, playing dolls, erecting forts, digging through dirt for marbles, burrowing in leaf piles, failing at igloo building, when my biggest concern was going to sleep with the lights off. I wish I was five again, before things got hard, before I was forced to grow up way too early and been stuck in this "adult" thing way too long. I wish I could sit in my Grandpa's lap and let him sing me crazy Irish songs and go over the names of the planets. "Gwampa, tell me about Outer Space." ... "Gwampa, sing the Swimming Song."
I wish I could go back there, just for a little while, and pick raspberries by myself in the sun and find secret hideaways and not hurt, not worry, not carry the heavy things. If I could be five years old....just for a few minutes. Remember what it felt like to be free. That would be something.”
“I'd like to go home now,' she said softly. She hoped someone would show her the way.”
Source: Unbecoming
“I'd like to have a good long talk with you once you've calmed down. Please call me soon. Happy Birthday.”
Source: Norwegian Wood
“I'd like to make a twosome with two handsome trees. Make that a threesome as I'd also include a bush in the package, to keep it low profile.”
Source: Nothing is here...
“I'd like to make an announcement - I am no longer a practicing narcissist - I've gone professional!”
“I'd like to peek into the drawing room, where you sometimes see only an open door into yet another room beyond the drawing room.”
Source: The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
“I'd like to point out that we've had zero problem reaching each other's mouths.”
Source: Isla and the Happily Ever After
“I’d like to propose to you that revelation is not the product of laborious study, but it is the fruit of friendship with God.”
“I'd like to remind everybody of another legend. It's an old, forgotten legend -- we've all probably heard it in our difficult childhoods. In this legend, the kings kept their promises. And we, poor vassals, are only bound to kings by the royal word: treaties, alliances, our privileges and fiefs all rely on it. And now? Are we to doubt all this? Doubt the inviolability of the king's word? Wait until it is worth as much as yesteryear's snow? If this is how things are to be, then a difficult old age awaits us after our difficult childhoods!”
Source: The Last Wish
“I'd like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. And so, Ron, in short, get out of Salton City and hit the Road. I guarantee you will be very glad you did. But I fear that you will ignore my advice. You think that I am stubborn, but you are even more stubborn than me. You had a wonderful chance on your drive back to see one of the greatest sights on earth, the Grand Canyon, something every American should see at least once in his life. But for some reason incomprehensible to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as quickly as possible, right back to the same situation which you see day after day after day. I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover.
Don't settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon. You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience.
You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.
My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it. The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.”
Source: Into the Wild
“I’d like to say I’m not dressed up for anyone in particular, but that would be a lie.”
Source: Single-Minded
“I’d like to say it could have been worse. I’m sure lots of people hate their job, or their boss, or the people they work with. I just couldn’t relate to those people. They have options. They can quit their job, move out of town, or drop off the grid. The only option I had was a guaranteed one-way ticket to Hell when I died, and that didn’t include dental.”
Source: Dark Hope
“I'd like to see if he'd look at some things we've found in the attic of the Olsson house. Jeff suspects some of it might be valuable." When Dreams There Be”
Source: When Dreams There Be
“I’d like to see more stand-up routines venture into depicting tragedy. It’s conventional to give people a humorous cathartic release; now I’d love to hear stand-up tragedy that would reduce the audience to exhausted tears.”
“I’d like to share with you a parable: the parable of Bob the Angel.
A girl was walking down a darkly lit city street late at night. A man jumped out from the shadows and attacked her, suddenly she was suffocating and disoriented as hands clasped around her neck and the force of his attack started to push her down. She tried to yell as she struggled to pull his arms from her neck while she crumpled backwards to the ground, “God . . . help me!”
The next thing she remembers—just as the fear consumed her, and right as she disappeared into the misery and despair of helplessness—was a loud crash and an explosion of glass which rained down upon her and her attacker. The assailant’s lifeless body was suspended above her, held from collapsing on her by an unknown force, and then pulled away from hovering over her and dropped onto the pavement beside her.
She opened her eyes in the faint shadowy light, to see black matted hair and a long, black beard framing the eyes of a man. The smell of alcohol on his breath would have knocked her out if the adrenaline was not still trilling through her veins.
There he stood, God’s angel, off-kilter and drunk, with a broken whiskey bottle in his hand.
“You probably shouldn’t be walking through here this late at night,” was all he said as he turned away.
“Wait! What’s your name?” she asked, still stunned half sitting up on the ground.
All she heard as he walked away was his trailing voice calling, “Bob’s as good as any. . . .”
An angel is a messenger, and sometimes we only want letters sent in white envelopes with beautiful gold print, when sometimes a simple “no” on the back of a gum wrapper is what we are offered.
Every postcard from heaven does not come with a picture of the sunset there, nor should it. If it is an answer we want, an answer we will get. As far as pretty postcards, there are many others willing to send us that.
If not harps and gold-tipped wings, what then is the mark of an angel? An answer which pierces your soul, and which inspires a question that invites you to look outside of yourself and up to God.
God is very objective; He wants to make us think, to engage the faculties we have been given, and to learn from the messengers he sends us. He wants us in the ark before the flood; he could come himself—or send a Noah—but most of the time he sends Bob.
Bob is in you, Bob is in me, Bob is in the emotionalized, sarcastic, mocking, patronizing, proud or foolish person which points out meaningful things to us in the worst possible moments, or in the worst possible way.”
Source: Dinner Party: Part 2
“I'd like to somehow find the courage to be on the outside who I am on the inside.”
Source: Walk the Edge
“I'd like to start this week with a request, and this one goes out to the followers of the three Abrahamic religions: the Muslims, Christians, and Jews. It's just a little thing, really, but do you think that when you've finished smashing up the world and blowing each other to bits and demanding special privileges while you do it, do you think that maybe the rest of us could sort of have our planet back? I wouldn't ask, but I'm starting to think that there must be something written in the special books that each of you so enjoy referring to that it's ok to behave like special, petulant, pugnacious, pricks.
Forgive the alliteration, but your persistent, power-mad punch-ups are pissing me off. It's mainly the extremists obviously, but not exclusively. It's a lot of 'main-streamers' as well. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.
Muslims: listen up my bearded and veily friends! Calm down, ok? Stop blowing stuff up. Not everything that said about you is an attack on the prophet Mohammed and Allah that needs to end in the infidel being destroyed. Have a cup of tea, put on a Cat Stevens record, sit down and chill out. I mean seriously, what's wrong with a strongly-worded letter to The Times?
Christians: you and your churches don't get to be millionaires while other people have nothing at all. They're your bloody rules; either stick to them or abandon the faith. And stop persecuting and killing people you judge to be immoral. Oh, and stop pretending you're celibate -- it's a cover-up for being a gay or a nonce. Right, that's two ticked off.
Jews! I know you're god's 'Chosen People' and the rest of us are just whatever, but when Israel behaves like a violent, psychopathic bully and someone mentions it that doesn't make them antisemitic. And for the record, your troubled history is not a license to act with impunity now.”
“I'd like to take a long walk, to the edge of something.”