T Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with T. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“That was what the agencies wanted: to mask everyone, to blindfold and brainwash them until habit became the new truth. Yes, rebels suffered. They were abused, wounded, locked up, and killed. Their families were broken apart like shattered clocks that could no longer tell time. History had a way of finger-painting every revolution with blood. Yet to what end would blind obedience lead? What was the purpose of blinding them all?
Lexi's hand reached up and stroked Dominic's face. Beneath his scruff, above the webbing of nerves and veins, she thought for a moment that her fingers brushed against a string. "You put it on and take it off, my love," she whispered. "Until one day that mask might not come off. What then?"
He shoved her away and switched off the light.”
“That was what the books did—they turned off your thinking for you, put their thoughts in your head so you wouldn't have your own.”
Source: The Broken Girls
“That was what they did with themselves, those two Gracelings, along with a small band of friends: They stirred up trouble on a serious scale—bribery, coercion, sabotage, organized rebellion—all directed at stopping the worst behavior of the world’s most seriously corrupt kings.”
Source: Graceling
“That was what they taught at these parties. The secret to munches, or rather the recipe, is to enjoy the whipping, whisking, beating, and baking but always display the result in the window to the public, as a decadent treat”
Source: The Devil's Horsewhip
“That was what tortured him, that was what came over him when he saw Clarissa so calm, so cold, so intent on her dress or whatever it was; realising what she might have spared him, what she had reduced him to - a whimpering, snivelling old ass.”
Source: Mrs. Dalloway
“That was what true love was supposed to be about. Couples slobbering all over each other, only just able to let each other out of sight long enough to go to the loo. True love was not furtively checking your email, while your other half is in the bathroom to see if you have a message from someone you met out once. True love shouldn't be disappointed when your ex writes with the news that another old girlfriend is back on the scene.
'Fuck' she couldn't do this. She couldn't keep pretending. Not a single day longer.”
Source: Getting Personal
“That was what was so seductive about the memories of him. Her sensual memories of him were crystal-clear and popped up to haunt her at odd moments. Even now, she could remember the feel of his cheek under her hand, the creases at the side of his mouth when he smiled.”
Source: The Last Innocent Hour
“That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. Or gave you the syphilis like Rinaldi. But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you.”
Source: A Farewell to Arms
“That was what you were trained to do as a plus-size girl—cover up. Turn around. Hide. Don’t expose anyone to your body in case it made them uncomfortable. Never mind how that secrecy made you feel like your body was something to be ashamed of. According to our society, your body wasn’t for you. It was for you to show everyone else.”
Source: Curvy Girls Can't Date Quarterbacks
“That was what, ultimately, war did to you. It was not the physical dangers--the mines at sea, the bombs from the air, the crisp ping of a rifle bullet as you drove over a desert track. No, it was the spiritual danger of learning how much easier life was if you ceased to think.”
Source: There Is a Tide
“That was when Estefania, who had made her pain the world’s pain, stood up, her knees dirty, shaking, her tights torn. She took a distanced look around and then she started tearing her tights even more. She kicked her expensive shoes through the wind, then she ripped off her dress, screaming as if it were burning, her second skin, her role as an actress, her one-woman show, as if she herself were on fire, as if her clothes were drenched in acid and abandoned love.”
Source: Within Paravent Walls
“That was when General Johnston rode up. He came right past where I was standing, a fine big man on a bay stallion. He had on a broad-brim hat and a cape and thigh boots with gold spurs that twinkled like sparks of fire. I watched him ride by, his mustache flaring out from his mouth and his eyes set deep under his forehead. He was certainly the handsomest man I ever saw, bar none; he made the other officers on his staff look small.”
Source: Shiloh
“That was when I began to learn how to do all the things I had been taught not to do. I learned over the years to accept more and more of myself,. The doctor and theologian Gerald May said self-acceptance is freedom. I learned to waste a lot more time, which is the opposite of the fourth thing you're told after you're born: Don't waste time. (It comes right after Go clean your room.) The fifth rule is Don't waste paper, but in order to become who I was meant to be, I learned I had to waste more paper, to practice messes, false starts and blunders: these are necessary stops on the route of creativity and emotional growth. To make up for all my papery mistakes, I sent money to the Sierra Club. I had to accept that contrary to my parents' terror of looking bad, almost everybody worth his or her salt was a mess and had been an overly sensitive child. Almost everyone had at one time or another been exposed to the world as being flawed, and human. And that it was good, for the development of character and empathy, for the growth of the spirit. Periods in the wilderness or desert were not lost time. You might find life, wildflowers, fossils, sources of water.”
Source: Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair by Anne Lamott
“That was when I cut my arms with a razor blade as a means of creative expression. I only did it lightly, just grazing the skin, to see the way the blood would bleed out, to make myself look tougher. Not like some of those kids who keep going deeper and deeper, wondering what they look like down to the bone, because it's a world that's so close and yet so far and so dangerous and so much their own. The only world that is their own.”
“That was when I finally got to it. This is just the way it was going to be. I could lose fifty pounds and be beautiful. I could write my Book of Books, and have it an underground success. I could even die and be reborn. But no matter what, I would always be as painfully shy and as bewildered by the social talk that brings people together, as shy and as bewildered as I had been since I was a kid. Without knowing what you say to leave without hurting, I pushed back my chair, stood up awkwardly, and silently wandered away. When I awoke I knew, for the first time again, that nothing ever really changes. The shyness is mine, like it or not. It's the best of me and the worst of me, and only the covering it up, the hiding it, and the running from it is not me. And for better or for worse, all of that that is not me is me, too.”
Source: If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! The Pilgrimage of Psychotherapy Patients
“That was when I first observed a phenomenon I now call the "New York Slide": you offer your words to try to communicate and connect with someone, but your words just hit a brick wall the person has erected to ward off human contact- the words slide down it and roll away.”
Source: If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You
“That was when I found out that the best way in the world to make yourself feel better when you have hit bottom is to try to get somebody else to feel better. There are certain things in life that are truly worth knowing, and that is one of the big ones.”
Source: Pirate Freedom
“That was when I learned that kindness could break a heart just as sure as meanness. The difference was the kindness made that broken heart softer. Meanness just made the heart want to be hard.”
Source: A Cup of Dust
“That was when I learned that words are no good; that words dont ever fit even what they are trying to say at.”
Source: As I Lay Dying
“That was when I learned that words are no good; that words dont ever fit even what they are trying to say at. When he was born I knew that motherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn't care whether there was a word for it or not. I knew that fear was invented by someone that had never had the fear; pride, who never had the pride.”
Source: The Best of Faulkner
“That was when I looked at myself and said: I love you, I respect you, and I will make you great.”
“That was when I realised that music is the most profound, magical form of communication there is.”
“That was when I realized I had no control over my actions anymore. All I knew was that though no one knew what hell felt like, my life had become a version of fire and brimstone. My restrictive anorexia was completely and inexorably interfering with my ability to live like a normal human being.”
Source: Imperfect Mortals : A Collection of Short Stories
“That was When I realized that life was a multiple-choice test with two answerd: Male and Female, And I was None Of The Above.”
Source: None of the Above
“That was when I saw her and heard her voice for the first time as she giggled and crooned on the arm of another.”
Source: Bold
“That was when I saw their hate come out. They fought on the front lawn. Balloons and my birthday cake stood witness as I watched every regretful blow from my mother. I knew my sister was at war with my mother, but I never knew what her cruelty was capable of. My mother’s military was larger than Jayme’s. My mother already had my father, and she had her five children, including me.”
Source: This Shadow Follows Me
“That was when I still had a mother who taught me to read and write; who handled books with care, saying they were marvels contained in paper, calling them our friends; a mother who celebrated life through small acts, every day; whose luminous presence found beauty in the world that was degrading minute by minute.”
Source: The Unworthy
“That was when it became abundantly clear to me that simply eating in a way that avoided hurting others was never going to be enough if my eating habits were still hurting me.”
“That was when it was all made painfully clear to me. When you are a child, there is joy. There is laughter. And most of all, there is trust. Trust in your fellows. When you are an adult...then comes suspicion, hatred, and fear. If children ran the world, it would be a place of eternal bliss and cheer. Adults run the world; and there is war, and enmity, and destruction unending. Adults who take charge of things muck them up, and then produce a new generation of children and say, "The children are the hope of the future." And they are right. Children are the hope of the future. But adults are the damnation of the present, and children become adults as surely as adults become worm food.
Adults are the death of hope.”
Source: Tigerheart
“That was when Leonard realized something crucial about depression. The smarter you were, the worse it was. The sharper your brain, the more it cut you up.”
Source: The Marriage Plot: A Novel
“That was when my hard persona cracked and shattered into pieces. My hands shook as I wiped away all of the tears streaming down my face. The hysteria that I’d held in all night fled my body.”
Source: Bad for You
“That was when reality kicked back in and reminded Xander that the woman he'd just spent the past fifteen minutes mentally undressing was going to be in his squad, and that he was going to be her supervisor.
He was in so much trouble.
There was no way he could be her boss. It wouldn't be fair to her or his team, and it sure as hell wasn't something he could handle. He'd end up spending all his time gazing at her like a lovesick puppy instead of training her on weapons and tactics.”
Source: Wolf Trouble
“That was when something hit me. The white suit he was wearing wasn't just a fashion choice. I mean, who actually dresses like that? Nobody, at least nobody in reality. Yeah, Ok, his big friend was in standard spook/secret service/bodyguard gear, but this guy? He was a walking cliche. It was like somebody said to me, Hey Chris, can you imagine a Colombian drug lord for me please? And this guy had popped up as the end result.”
Source: Kill Someone
“That was when the ones who smiled Were the dead, glad to be at rest.”
“That was when the Spanish came in and conquered the Aztecs. I thought that was a clever thing.”
“That was when the world wasn't so big and I could see everywhere. It was when my father was a hero and not a human.”
Source: I Am the Messenger
“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.”
“That was when we smelled the rain. It was so strong it seemed like more than just a smell. When we stretched out our hands we could practically feel it rising up from the ground. I don’t know how a person could ever describe that scent.”
Source: The Bean Trees: A Novel
“That was where my dream began to take hold, of not havin' to pick cotton and potatoes, and not havin' to be uncomfortable, too hot or too cold. That in itself had driven me to try to find some better way of life.”
“That was why he still hadn’t called her. He wasn’t sure what the hell he was going to say if she picked up. Evie, I’m really sorry about acting like a complete dick to you. Would you be willing to go out for lunch again? This time somewhere where my brother can’t kill anyone, and my fucked‐up father won’t take revenge for my letting it happen by trying to kill you?”
Source: Red Moon
“That was why something might become a ghost- its life had meant so little, no one had even mourned it.”
Source: A Study in Drowning
“That was with me for years--feeling I wasn't myself. And I do think I wasn't my real self then. Of course, I'm not sure there is such a thing as a real self. You could ransack your innards looking for the real you and never find it--slice yourself open and all you'll find is blood and muscle and bone.”
Source: In the Miso Soup
“That was your past, Michelle. You can't live in the past.
Sure you can, Sean. If you're not too thrilled with your future.”
Source: King and Maxwell
“That was Youth with its reckless exuberance when all things were possible pursued by Age where we are now, looking back at what we destroyed, what we tore away from that self who could do more, and its work that's become my enemy because that's what I can tell you about, that Youth who could do anything.”
“That was...that was choking. You're right. But of course when you play against (Roger) Federer, he's No. 1 in the world, he won three grand slams last year, and he's just full of confidence. It's difficult to do anything regular to beat him. You have to do something extra to be able to have the chance to beat him. Set points, I had six of them and I couldn't take one. But I was close.”
“That wasn't a moose was it?" Janelle said when Stevie was out of earshot. "that's a branch, right? it moved in the wind?"
"It's a branch". Nate replied.
"Like, that's obviously a branch," Vi said. "Should we tell her? She seems really invested in this."
"Definitely not," Nate said as Stevie vanished in the direction of the classroom buildings, earbuds already in her ears. "Let her have her moose.”
Source: The Hand on the Wall
“That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human fuckery.”
Source: The Stand
“That wasn’t bad,” Tom said. “Almost as good as Alex.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Jack growled. “Alex would have blown them up or forced them off the road. Just a shame I forgot my hand grenade.”
“Next time,” Tom said.”
Source: Nightshade
“That wasn't exactly what I was suggesting,' I pointed out. 'I meant that since you seem pretty-'
'Thank you.'
I shot him a bland look.”
Source: A Shadow in the Ember
“That wasn’t fair Sally.”
“Why not? Do you think you can stay self-righteous forever. You needed a little dose of reality.”
“Reality usually doesn’t include aggravated assault, breaking and entering—twice, and illegal surveillance Sally. You did that on purpose.”
Source: The Deathbed Confessions