I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“I do not know everything. I ought to keep learning.”
“I do not know everything, I never will, and that is OK.”
“I do not know everything; still many things I understand.”
Source: A Wrinklein Time Quintet
“I do not know exactly why, but it seems to me that images do not belong to anybody but are instead there, at the disposal of all.”
“I do not know how bad a life has to break in order to kill.
I have never been so hungry that I willed hunger.
I have never been so angry as to want to control a gun over a pen.
Not really. Even as a woman, as a Palestinian, as a broken human being.
Never this broken.”
“I do not know how high the ladder of evil deeds such truth climbs, honestly. I have seen wicked dictators of every species and culture to match the vileness of the most zealous Lolthian priestess. I have witnessed truly evil people, from dwarfs to halflings to humans to elves to drow, and everything in between and every species or culture only a bit removed. So perhaps there are some individuals who have within them a natural evil. Or perhaps even with them, even with the most wicked, like Matron Zhindia Melarn or the magistrates of Luskan’s carnival, who torture accused criminals with such glee, there were steps in the earlier days of their personal journey which corrupted them and brought them to their present state. That is a question that I doubt will ever show an answer, nor is that answer truly the most important factor, for in the present, in the moment, in their own actions, these folk, as with us all, bear responsibility.”
Source: Lolth's Warrior
“I do not know how history will judge me, but let me say that I've spent a lot of time and energy trying to transform the Tatas from a patriarchal concern to an institutional enterprise. It would, therefore, be a mark of failure on my part if it were perceived that Ratan Tata epitomises the Group's success. What I have done is establish growth mechanisms, play down individuals and play up the team that has made the companies what they are. I, for one, am not the kind who loves dwelling on the 'I'. If history remembers me at all, I hope it will be for this transformation.”
“I do not know how it comes about, but if you sit opposite a man every day and you are engaged in fighting him, you cannot help getting a liking for him whether he deserves it or not.”
“I do not know how long he kept on like this, hating to go on, not daring to stop, on, on, until he was tireder than tired. It seemed like all the way to tomorrow and over it to the days beyond.”
Source: J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
“I do not know how long the arm of Mr Holbrooke or Mrs Albright is ... or whether that arm can reach me here.”
“I do not know how many times I pretended to smile with moist eyes. Nobody knows how many times I pretended to smile with moist eyes because nobody noticed.”
Source: Pinwheels and Dandelions
“I do not know how much my own work has achieved, and I must not pretend it has done more than it has.”
“I do not know how much they see through the Mist. I doubt it would matter to them if they knew the truth. Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters.”
Source: The Titan's curse
“I do not know how old I was when I learned to play chess. I could not have been older than eight, because I still have a chessboard on whose side my father inscribed, with a soldering iron, “Saša Hemon 1972.” I loved the board more than chess—it was one of the first things I owned. Its materiality was enchanting to me: the smell of burnt wood that lingered long after my father had branded it; the rattle of the thickly varnished pieces inside, the smacking sound they made when I put them down, the board’s hollow wooden echo. I can even recall the taste—the queen’s tip was pleasantly suckable; the pawns’ round heads, not unlike nipples, were sweet. The board is still at our place in Sarajevo, and, even if I haven’t played a game on it in decades, it is still my most cherished possession, providing incontrovertible evidence that there once lived a boy who used to be me.”
Source: The Book of My Lives
“I do not know how old I was when the daydreams became more than that, and I decided to write them down, but by the time I entered high school, I was confident that I would one day be a writer.”
“I do not know how the affair at Canterbury is generally considered; but I have heard individuals of all parties and all opinions speak of it and never without merriment or indignation. Fifty years hence, the black laws of Connecticut will be a greater source of amusement to the antiquarian, than her famous blue laws.”
“I do not know how the English ladies can bear with you, señor.’
He looked merrily down at her. ‘Why, I have not called upon them to bear with me, señora.’
She faced him suddenly. ‘You will scarce have me believe you have not trifled often and often!’ she said hotly. ‘No doubt ye deem women of small account!’
‘I do not deem you of small account, child.’
She smiled disdainfully. ‘You are mightily apt. Do you use this manner with the English ladies, pray?’
‘Nay, sweetheart, this is the manner I use,’ Sir Nicholas answered, and promptly kissed her.”
“I do not know how the English ladies can bear with you, señor.’
He looked merrily down at her. ‘Why, I have not called upon them to bear with me, señora.’
She faced him suddenly. ‘You will scarce have me believe you have not trifled often and often!’ she said hotly. ‘No doubt ye deem women of small account!’
‘I do not neem you of small account, child.’
She smiled disdainfully. ‘You are mightily apt. Do you use this manner with the English ladies, pray?’
‘Nay, sweetheart, this is the manner I use,’ Sir Nicholas answered, and promptly kissed her.”
Source: Beauvallet
“I do not know how to heal the world, but I know that love is how we start.”
“I do not know how to kiss, or I would kiss you. Where do the noses go?”
“i do not know how to live tepidly.
i was never built to fit in.
i live by my soul
and my soul is insane.”
“I do not know how to love God except by loving the poor. I do not know how to serve God except by serving the poor.... Here, within this great city of nine million people, we must, in this neighborhood, on this street, in this parish, regain a sense of community which is the basis for peace in the world.”
“I do not know how to make a man think seriously about sin and judgment, and must look to the work of the Holy Spirit for any hint of such a working.”
“I do not know how to start over because I do not know where to begin.”
Source: Pinwheels and Dandelions
“I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.”
“I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace.”
“I do not know how to wish success to those whose Victory is to separate from us a large and noble part of our Empire. Still less do I wish success to injustice, oppression and absurdity.”
Source: The Leadbeater Papers: Unpublished letters of Edmund Burke, and the correspondence of Mrs. Richard Trench and Rev. George Crabbe
“I do not know how Vladimir Putin will be esteemed by the future history, but I have no doubt that among his successes and advantages for Russia historians shall absolutely note the fact of his not altering the constitution, for he created a precedent. And afterwards, no matter who might become president, it shall be extremely difficult to alter the constitution exactly on that point. Extremely difficult.”
“I do not know how wicked American millionaires are, but as I travel about and see the results of their generosity in the form of hospitals, churches, public libraries, universities, parks, recreation grounds, art museums and theatres I wonder what on earth we should do without them.”
“I do not know if Alice in Wonderland was an original story-I was, at least, no conscious imitator in writing it-but I do know that, since it came out, something like a dozen story-books have appeared, on identically the same pattern. The path I timidly explored believing myself to be 'the first that ever burst into that silent sea'-is now a beaten high-road: all the way-side flowers have long ago been trampled into the dust: and it would be courting disaster for me to attempt that style again.”
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Tales
“I do not know if all cops are poets, but I know that all cops carry guns with triggers.”
Source: Invisible Man
“I do not know if all kinds of solitary living have the same effect. The solitary sea-life . . . makes me think and feel more than is comfortable for my peace of mind. I have dreadful attacks of remorse. My chief remorse is for unkind acts to friends in the past. Maybe something deeply wounding that I have said or done. Then I find myself stuck with such things for ever; they cannot be undone and the awful thing is that often they did not mean much to me, nor were even seriously believed, but were used as a cruel weapon to hurt. Thank heaven I have a lot of jobs and work waiting to be done; otherwise, if able to lay about with nothing to do but think and feel, I would soon get into a maudlin state and eventually I can imagine the possibility of finding life too hard and cruel to bear. This life makes one so sympathetic with others in trouble with their conscience or unable to cope with the overwhelming difficulties of their life. . . . For me, to be nine months alone without aim, project, objective, challenge, would mean exposing my soul far too much. I can understand it being damaged or destroyed by continuous considering of it, relentless probing of it. I can only stand a very little peep of it now and then. Thank God for activity of body and mind to keep me away from my soul.”
“I do not know, if he once asked me, to be welcome.”
“I do not know if hell is hot or cold, or what sort of place hell may be, but this I surely know, that if there is any hell at all it will be badly lit. And it will taste like a train.”
Source: The World Of William Clissold: Volume II: v. 2
“I do not know if I am mistaken, but it seems that one can obtain more truths, important to Humanity, from Chemistry than from any other Science.”
“I do not know if I really am a big star. And in fact that is not the most important thing for me. What counts in life is to bring about more of your own dreams. In such a way that your life becomes like a fairy tale. This is what has happened to me, it is just like that.”
“I do not know if it has ever been noted before that one of the main characteristics of life is discreteness. Unless a film of flesh envelopes us, we die. Man exists only insofar as he is separated from his surroundings. The cranium is a space-traveler's helmet. Stay inside or you perish. Death is divestment, death is communion. It may be wonderful to mix with the landscape, but to do so is the end of the tender ego.”
“I do not know if it is true that all actors want to direct and all directors want to act, but in 1972 I tried directing and decided I had better stick to acting.”
Source: James Earl Jones: Voices and Silences
“I do not know if the doctrine that the nation-state arose in the 19th century was still being taught:;... but it is erroneous. The nation-state reaches back far into the origins of Europe itself and perhaps beyond. If Europe was not always a Europe of nations, it was always a Europe in which nations existed, and were taken for granted, as a basic form of the State.”
“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”
“I do not know if there is a more dreadful word in the English language than that word "lost."”
“I do not know if this is love
or what love is
or if love's a thing, if it can be
worn like an old coat, or felt
like harsh fabric on naked flesh, or
if it is a sensation, like that first time
the brakes of my bike failed while riding downhill or
the climax of masturbation, or
if love is an invention, and we all
manufacture our own versions -
some bright, some dull, some marbled,
but all with labels and stickers
that say: this is love.
I do not know what love is
or if I can say what I think love is,
could be or should be. If we were
to ever sit on the marble floor,
on one of those dry, electricity free, 45 degree
Delhi nights, sharing a drink of Old Monk's
and I were to tell you that this is love,
slap me for I would either be drunk or a liar.
and if i were drunk, I won't be drunk on love or your loving
for I don't know what love is or if it can be known.
Maybe, one night, after thirty years of searching
for what love means, we will sit outside -
you and I -
amidst the debris of our meanderings,
our bent backs resting
on the rusted iron railing,
our skin pimpled, throats scratched
from prayers uttered to absent gods and
we would be in love and believe that love is this:
love is all the spaces, non-events,
the unspoken words and everything
in between the first second of these
thirty years to this. Love is this.”
“I do not know if you are not interested, or protecting yourself, but you cannot guard yourself against the whole world. You only succeed in placing a barrier between yourself from the world." He hesitated. "I know that from personal experience.”
Source: In Other Lands
“I do not know if you have ever noticed that the more you struggle to understand, the less you understand any problem. But, the moment you cease to struggle and let the problem tell you the whole story, give all its significance - then there is understanding, which means, obviously, that to understand, the mind must be quiet.”
Source: The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti: 1948-1949 : Choiceless awareness
“I do not know if you read some time ago how one of the Marshals of the Russian army reporting to the Polit Bureau, said that in the army they were training soldiers under hypnosis —you know what that means? You are put under hypnosis and taught how to kill, how to obey completely, function with complete independence, but within a pattern, under the authority of a superior. Now culture and society are doing exactly the same thing to each one of us. Culture and society have hypnotized you. Do please listen to this very carefully, it is not only being done in the army in Russia, but it is being done all over the world. When you read the Gita endlessly, or the Koran, or repeat some mantram, some endlessly repeated words, you are doing exactly the same thing. When you say, “I am a Hindu”, “I am a Buddhist”, “I am a Muslim”, “I am a Catholic”, the same pattern is being repeated, you have been mesmerized, hypnotized; and technology is doing exactly the same thing. You can be a clever lawyer, a first-class engineer, or an artist, or a great scientist, but always within a fragment of the whole. I do not know if you see this, not because I describe it, but actually see what is taking place. The Communists are doing it, the Capitalists are doing it, everybody, parents, schools, education, they are all shaping the mind to function within a certain pattern, a certain fragment. And we are always concerned with bringing about a change within the pattern, within the fragment.
Madras
3 January 1968”
“I do not know if you remember the tale of the girl who saves the ship under mutiny by sitting on the powder barrel with her lighted torch... and all the time knowing that it is empty? This has seemed to me a charming image of the women of my time. There they were, keeping the world in order... by sitting on the mystery of life, and knowing themselves that there was no mystery.”
“I do not know is a phrase which becomes us.”
Source: Rousseau's Émile: Or, Treatise on Education
“I do not know its name. I call it the Way. For the lack of better words I call it great.”
“I do not know much about God and prayer, but I have come to believe over the last twenty-five years, that there's something to be said about keeping prayer simple. Help, Thanks, Wow.”
“I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river is a strong brown god-sullen, untamed and intractable, Patient to some degree, at first recognized as a frontier; Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce; Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges. The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten By the dwellers in cities-ever, however, implacable. Keeping his seasons, and rages, destroyer, reminder Of what men choose to forget. Unhonored, unpropitiated By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.”